are butina has agreed to plead guilty. russians interacted with at least 14 trump associates during the campaign and transition period. now, that list includes people who pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes as part of the resulting investigation, including paul manafort, michael cohen, michael flynn. it also includes donald trump, jr., ivanka trump, and her husband jared kushner. here to talk about it all, malcolm nantz, a veteran of naval intelligence special ops and homeland security with 35 years working in counterterrorism and
maria butina. butina is currently in federal custody. she is accused of acting as a russian agent to infiltrate including the nra. out tonight, multiple reports are butina has agreed to plead guilty. russians interacted with at least 14 trump associates during the campaign and transition period. now, that list includes people who pleaded guilty or been convicted of crimes as part of the resulting investigation, including paul manafort, michael cohen, michael flynn. it also includes donald trump, jr., ivanka trump, and her husband jared kushner. here to talk about it all, malcolm nantz, a veteran of naval intelligence special ops and homeland security with 35 years working in counterterrorism and intelligence. he s also the author of the plot to hack america, how putin cyber spies and wikileaks planned to steal the election in 2016. clint watts, member of the joint terrorism task force. he s also the author of messing with the enemy, surviving in a
president. he does not have immunity. he is a man. he is a citizen of the united states. but let s step back and look at the way a little further than what clint had said about the impact on this election. they didn t just steal an election. this was the co-option of the national security apparatus of the united states via foreign power, by an ex-k.g.b. director. this election was far more than just raising sanctions. this is getting a perfectly recruitable russian asset, a man with an unquenchable ego, a narcissist who could be easily manipulated in blackmail into power, and he dances on their string. that is why he needs to be removed from power. he is a national security threat and it is the pinnacle of intelligence operations. malcolm nantz and clint watts, thank you both for sharing your views tonight.
we see questions floated in the summer of 15. we start seeing influence in the summer of 15. russian state bots or propaganda, is donald trump the man to mend fences in the summer 2015? this is a deliberate effort. every part of the trump campaign, everyone on the team, every angle and every facet was touched in some way. malcolm, what do you make of maria butina, 2015, if somebody had seen that video, they would have thought it s some young russian reporter some journalist of some sort, asking this candidate a question. turns out that she was working hard to infiltrate american organizations. yeah, well, when she asked that question, there were a lot of, you know, eyes raised. when you started to scrub her
impact on this election. they didn t just steal an election. this was the co-option of the national security apparatus of the united states via foreign power, by an ex-k.g.b. director. this election was far more than just raising sanctions. this is getting a perfectly recruitable russian asset, a man with an unquenchable ego, a narcissist who could be easily manipulated in blackmail into power, and he dances on their string. that is why he needs to be removed from power. he is a national security threat and it is the pinnacle of intelligence operations. malcolm nantz and clint watts, thank you both for sharing your views tonight. coming up, the attorney general reportedly turned down a different job offer from the president. that would be the president s defense attorney. michael isikoff has all the details. he joins me after this.