senator al franken making it official today, announcing he is resigning from the senate amid allegations of sexual harassment. and taking a swipe at both president trump and roy moore. roy moore, by the way, the republican senate candidate in alabama. listen to this. there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the oval office. and a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. here to discuss, cnn political analyst kirsten powers, political commentators, scott jennings, and barry weiss, editor for the new york times. good evening to all of you. scott, you first.
did not amount to collusion and the trump campaign. an attorney for the russian billionaire who pushed for the meeting between a russian lawyer provided cnn with e-mails and documents to make that argument and the new information is intended to contrast with that initial e-mail pitching the meeting to trump jr. which as you know promised damaging information on hillary clinton. the e-mail between the russian lawyer natalia veselnitskaya and publicist rob gold stone the morning of the meetinged a asked for a russian american lobbyist to be added because of the adoption issue. a five page talking menu provided to cnn showed veselnitskaya s case to repeal the act to improve u.s./russia relations with a passing reference to a possible financier of clinton s campaign and the documents provided to us by scott ballber who represents the billionaire real estate developer and pop star son who
requested that meeting. poppy. so on top of that, help us understand why the e-mails and the documents that you received from that attorney, why do they help make this case? well, if you recall the june 2016 meeting pitched by the publicist of donald trump, jr. to get damaging information on hillary clinton. trump seemed receptive to hearing them out on that and subsequently said that veselnitskaya did, indeed, start the meeting talking about, quote, individuals connected to russia funding clinton but said ultimately she provided no the deals to support her claims. she moved on focus on the u.s. sanctions under the act of adoption of russian children. ballber who went to obtain the documents from veselnitskaya said in an interview the e-mails and talking points show she was focused primarily on repealing the act, not providing damaging information on clinton. the message was muddled he said