4 00 a. M. On the u. S. East coast. President elect trump is set for a busy saturday continuing to screen candidates for critical jobs within his administration. He does have one less thing to worry about. Hes agreed to pay 25 million to settle three lawsuits over his nowdefunct Trump University. The lawsuits cover about 6,000 people who signed up for the real estate course. They can expect a refund of about half their money. In the meantime, trump has named three hardline conservatives to Key National Security posts. One of them, retired general Michael Flynn. Theres republican senator Jeff Sessions and republican congressman mike pompeo. Now more on the team as it starts to take shape. Reporter lock her up. Lock her up. Reporter lookingists, hardliners, now the core of president elect trumps National Security team. The choices revealing the next administrations security posture. One defined not by a pragmatic move to the middle but instead, by a move deeply into conservative orthodox
In joint session of the senate and the house of representatives to officially count the Electoral College ballots and certify Donald Trumps victory. We will keep you updated this n this peaceful transfer of power. Those boxes that you are seeing right now, those are the electoral votes. Theyre being brought in to the floor of the house of representatives. Right now theyre going through a brief ceremonial procedure, and then it will be official. The Vice President there you see him in the middle of your screen, joe biden, he is presiding reported today that will make donald trump the next president of the United States. It certainly will. The Vice President also is the president of the senate with paul ryan speaking in the house. The process that gets together, and how it all works. The Vice President will opal fa b alphabetically. He will go one state at a time. Representing the house and the senate. They will read the totals, and the Vice President will ask if there are any objections
What did Jeff Sessions do . Did he tell the truth under oath about what he did and do the facts about what he did and said compromise his authority as the nations chief Law Enforcement officer. This morning cnn learned Jeff Sessions who was a u. Slt senator and Trump Campaign supporter met twice last year with the Russian Ambassador to russia. Why might this matter . Because repeated contacts between Trump Officials and ambassadors and senator sessions under oath said he was not part of it. And if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the Trump Campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do . Senator franken, im not aware of any of those activity. I have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i did not have communications with the russians. I did not have communications with the russians he said then. Now we know he did have communications with the Russian Ambassador. But a short time ago he defende
The idea that muellers team has been compromised by bias and hatred for the president. Chief intelligence correspondent Catherine Herridge takes a look. And evening. Good evening. With more than 10,000 messages of single texts, the dominated todays hearing has the attention of congressional investigators. I think the public trust in this whole thing is gone. Republicans say the antitrump texts undermine confidence in the special counsel russian investigation, pointing to this august 26 team text from fbi agent peter strzok to fbi lawyer leases b21 with whom he was romantically involved. The messages under scrutiny because they say along with albert government officials, speaks to a possible conspiracy. Strzok writes of them above the path you throughout for consideration andys office, no way he gets elected. Andy appears to be andrew mckay. Strzok continues im afraid we cant take that risk. This guy thought he was james bond. Rod rosenstein deflected questions pointing to an ongoing go
A now report on how they took Rod Rosenstein suggestion to secretly record the president. The democrats are sending familiar faces to the campaign trail. This morning, whether that strategy could backfire. The Senate Judiciary committee and attorneys for Christine Blasey ford reached a tentative agreement for her to testify on thursday and talks will continue today as they try to riern oiron out the conditio her appearance. They call it a delay tactic. They say we a preer no closer to a fair hearing but Brett Kavanaugh remains redding, willing and eager to testify as soon as possible. Judge kavanaugh has been in and out of the white house all week. Now were getting new insight from the Washington Post on how hes getting ready for the line of questioning hell face when he returns to capitol hill this week. Lets bring in emily know, National Reporter for news and reporter for the Washington Post. Great to have you here this morning. Emily, first to you. How significant is this developmen