tonight we re learning how robert mueller is getting information that could lead to the answer. new reporting on cooperating witness rick gates and the extent of his cooperation with mueller. also the wall. for a second time the president said construction is under way. for the second time his claims face a cawall of doubt. first the russian story that cnn is breaking tonight. we don t often get a lot of detail behind the scenes of what s going on between mueller and the people he s investigating or talking to. that s what we got from my colleague. we re told during the talks that occurred during the period of months before rick gate decided to plead guilty that mueller s investigators told rick gates they didn t need him to provide information against paul manafort who is his former business partner and former campaign chairman for the trump
first the russian story that cnn is breaking tonight. we don t often get a lot of detail behind the scenes of what s going on between mueller and the people he s investigating or talking to. that s what we got from my colleague. we re told during the talks that occurred during the period of months before rick gate decided to plead guilty that mueller s investigators told rick gates they didn t need him to provide information against paul manafort who is his former business partner and former campaign chairman for the trump campaign. what they needed him for was to try to zero on contacts between the trump campaign and russia. what the president and his allies call collision. this is a big deal because it tells us that mueller is not done with this question of collusion despite the fact we hear repeatedly from the president and the would you say
would go. today we know he s going to come in here and plead guilty at 2:00 p.m., wolf. the guessing is over as far as rick gates is concerned. evan perez over at the federal courthouse, thanks very much. let s talk about this, get some analysis. joining us, our chief political analyst gloria borger and jim zeleny. gloria, you ve obtained this very important letter that rick gate wrote to family and friends. yes, and it gives you some insight of the pressure he felt given what he s going to do today at 2:00 in the afternoon. the portion of the letter that we ve received is addressed to friend and family. it says, given the news reports of last week, i wanted to give everyone an update of the events that will occur today. since the indictment has been handed down last october, there s been great pressure on
hello, i m wolf blitzer in washington. i want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. we re following breaking news on multiple fronts. former trump campaign official rick gates is about to plead guilty in robert mueller s wide-ranging russia investigation. the plea hearing is set to begin moments from now at the same time the president will be holding a big joint news conference with malcolm turnbull, visiting prime minister of australia, nation hailed, by the way, for addressing its gun violence problem. he arrives hours after president trump pushed once again for arming selected trained school teachers here in the united states. we ll get into the rick gates plea deal in a moment.
rick gates if he pleads guilty that would make four guilty please for the special counsel, three of them would be for either senior or significant figures within the trump campaign, what s the significance of this? you d also have at least four now known cooperators who are bedressing the cooperate b. you ve got a lot of pleasure by the mueller team that s stoked by this idea of chaos, no one knows what s going on, no one knows what mueller s team is investigating, having everything held close to the vest is proving critical to mueller s team securing these guilty pleas. people who may be down the line of lists that mueller s team is trying to check through. they re going to get information that the investigative team would otherwise not be privy to and when you have that access you can have future indictments coming. the white house from inside the white house trying to send