Many of the leaks are fabricated lies made up by the fake news media. Whenever you see the words sources say and they dont mention names, it is very possible those sources dont exist but are made up by fake news writers. Fake news is the enemy. Keeping him honest, john may have something to say about that. Fake sources, fake stories, fake news. Real fake news. Socalled fake news he now ucjects to is coming from real people talking to cnn and many others. Its not that hes shied away from relying on unknown sorshs when it suited him. Quote an extremely credible source called my office and told me that Barack Obamas birth surkificate is a fraud. Think about it. What source for the goose is not for the gander. And today pushing back on a Covert Communications link to moscow, he sited a more flattering story on fox news. Heres what sean spicer said when asked about that contradiction. Did the president retweeted this morning an article about that back channel that was based on an anonymous source that said there was an effort to set up a back channel; that it was the russians who suggested that and that it was tatalk about syria . Was the president not confirming there was an effort . I think what i said speaks for itself. But you said the article was based on Anonymous Sources. Which it is. But the fox article that the president tweeted was also based on Anonymous Sources. Why are your Anonymous Sources more credible than the Washington Post . One statement jareds attorney has provided and second whether the dossier was largely discredited in the first place. Theres an Ongoing Investigation. He ignored the whole question about Anonymous Sources. Part of that is on the dossier that sean spierser mentioned. Were not reporting on the details of it because some of it is yet to be confirmed or disproven. To say its been completely discredited is not true. In fact some parts have been corroborated. For instance they found some of the meetings and communications contained indeed took place on the dates and locations as described. Thats not all sean spicer said. As he gave his first press Briefing Since before the president s trip, a very busy day. So the breaking news about National Security advisor Michael Flynn. Michael flynn was saying not too long ago he was not going to be commenting and not testifying, not providing information to the Senate Intelligence committee. They floated the prospect of holding flynn in contempt of congress and low and behold a source is telling cnn that yes, Michael Flynn will be providing some documents to the Senate Intelligence committee by june the sixth, about a week or so from now. We should point out thats not the only activity. Boris epshtyn that he has also been requested by Intelligence Committee investigators to provide information to congress as well as michael cohen. We confirmed throughic mooal cohen directly. He confirmed that yes, hes been asked to provide testimony and information to congressional investigators. We should point out meekal icha cohen said he is politely declining to cooperate. He called it a fishing expedition. What is the mood facing the Ongoing Investigation . I think they certainly feel embattled. If you look at the report from sean spicer, you recall talking about fake news, sean spicer, during that briefing, slammed reporters for fake news. I tried to press spicer on that and he can only refer to eroe erroneous tweets that he was not listening to g7. Not whether Jared Kushner is somehow of interest to federal investigators. Then he set up or tried to set up a back channel with the russians. He would not comment on whether that was fake news. Wreerb been reporting for days that theyre putting together this war room, this Rapid Response inside the white house and among supporters and associates outside the white house to respond to this daily deluge of stories about the russia investigation and spicer just did not comment. He did not say whether he deemed that to be fake news. Thats an indication of where they are. If its a story they like, its just fine. If it has anything to do with the russia investigation, its fake news. That is a sign of a white house in the bunker. More now on the story that jim mentioned and that cnn was first reportingic what russians may have believed they had on the president and people close to him. It also comes with reasons to be careful on what were reporting and not reporting. So, what are you learning . Weve been reporting for months that russians wanted to influence the 2016 election. What were learning is that some russians learned they had leverage over trumps inner circling. It tells cnn that during the 2016 Campaign Russian government officials discuss having potentially quote derogatory information about then president ial candidate donald trump and some of his top aids. One source described the information as financial in nature and said the discussions centered around whether the russians had leverage with trumps inner circle. It says the intercepted communications suggested to u. S. Intelligence that russians believe quote they have the ability to influence the administration through derogatory informinformation. They first reported about russian officials bragging about cultivating relationships with trump aids including the first National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, to influence trump. But back then they were saying the claims could have been exaggerated or made up. Is that still the case . It is. Its a very important point. One of the things weve been learning through the course of our reporting of russia trying to influence the election is how crafty they were and still are in trying to spread disinformation. Our sources acknowledge it is possible in this case. But we do know that financial entanglements of some People Associated with trump are part of the fbi investigation into medaling. As you can imagine theyre not happy with this reporting and they say this is yet another round of false and unverified claims to smear the president. And should tell you that the office of director of National Security and the fbi are not commenting and the president himself has insisted on multiple occasions that he has no financial dealings with russia. Thanks very much. Want to bring in the panel. Jeffrey lord, and steve fall. I mean the question of whether the russians had something on President Trump. Again, it is important to point out it could just be russians talking to each other and bragging and lying to each other. That is a really important distinction to make. We still have innocent until proven guilty. There are a lot of legitimate questions that would have happened regardless of whether those conversations were taking place. And hes made clear hes not going to release his tax returns. They could be answered more fully. Theres a lot that we dont know. Theres a lot the president has refused to disclose, which i think is adding to the questions. And its hard to understand at some point why he wouldnt be more transparent. Theres the notion that you cant believe anything you hear on russian interceptorer communications because they know americans are likely lisheniten. How much credibility do you give it given your experience . Before he was president of the united states, he travelled to the russia. They have every capability and are very good at collecting all sorts of information that they can that they deem to be an appropriate target. So the russians would simply have seen him as an americanole gark, a rich guy with potential power and who knows what hes going to turn into in the future. In this case the bet would have paid off. The question is whether they obtained anything on trump that would in effect blackmail him . And frankly the only part that has the ring of truth to me is the financial angle. Because some of the stuff we heard about the steel documentation, im not sure thats true or compelling in any way but the financial stuff would be a soft underbelly of stuff. It is sort of strange you have russians talking about it over open telephone lines. And one thing you cant call into question is if they have information, they do. The whole question about Jared Kushner. Of course that he wantsed a back channel and proposed use equipment inside the russian embassy. This whole thing is baffling. This story broke friday night and we were very careful in reporting it and saying we need to hear the white houses side of the story but we still dont have a detailed account of what happened in that meeting. I think its important to step back and look at whats been previously reported and that is before Jared Kushner and Michael Flynn went to that meeting, they were briefed by obamas intelligence officials be careful of the russia ambassador and the Obama Administration actually gave them a psychological profile of kislyak to say watch this guy. You dont know who youre dealing with here. They went into the meeting and not only did they ignore the advice of intelligence professionals but talked about this back channel on russian soil. The embassy in washington is russian soil. So theyd be going to a Foreign Embassy presumably to talk to putin. We dont know why they didnt heed the warnings and why a few weeks later, ckislyak asked apparently kushner to meet with the head of the russian bank and he went ahead and did that. And then you have what looks like a cover up. You have kushner not disclosing these meetings on the form he was required to disclose them on that time. The russian banker, given his past with russian intelligence and the banks record of being a sanctioned bank. All that information is pretty easy to find on google. It doesnt even require a high level briefing. Theres lot of things about this that raise questions. If this were another country i toent think it would be that big of a deal. Russia tried to interfere with our elections and that i think is the big reason were so focussed only this. Back channels happen tduring transitions sometimes. I dont know if this is a deal, or no deal at this time. I think when you look at it in context, this could be entirely innocent. It could just be someone who did a lot of questionable things, Jared Kushner, who didnt know what he was doing. I think the fact that its russia, mitt romney was right. And before we go to break, none of this was happening in a vacuum. Obviously it was russia and the u. S. Intelligence community had been very open about the fact that russia had attempted to influni influence the election. All of these meetings are taking place with that as the back drop. It doesnt seem like thats brought up a lot. I just think this is over blown. President kennedy had his brother talking to a midlevel soviet back channel, jimmy carter as president elect send hairman and that conversation was written up by cubreenen himself december first, 1976 when gerald ford was still president. A back channel to iran and michael defending this process in 2013 or 14 in the Huffington Post reveelz that william miller, a Senate Select intelligence staffer served senator obama as nominee as back channel to iran. I so admire your persistence, jeffrey. In the face of what are unbelievable facts. This is why we need an independent commission and you even called for an independent commission to look at the full scope of things. This is not about Jared Kushner being some naive bamby. He did have flynn next to him. Flynn certainly knows whats going on. If you hear the president continue to say fake news. It causes many of us to say whats underneath this . And what is underneath all of this covering up . Why is there such a fear of what the russians may have . And that story that cnn uncovered is an example of why after a quick break, and an account of the president s state of mind these days. Also tonight youve seen the tiger woods mug shot. Do you know the real story emerging behind it. It can seem like triggers pop up everywhere. Luckily theres powerful, 24hour, nondrowsy claritin. It provides relief of symptoms that can be triggered by over 200 different allergens. Live claritin clear. Thithis is the new new york. E . Think again. We are building new airports all across the state. New roads and bridges. New mass transit. New business friendly environment. New lower taxes. And new University Partnerships to grow the businesses of tomorrow today. Learn more at esd. Ny. Gov radio scorching heat today folks[ barks ]ol out there walter stop suffering with hot ac. Cool it yourself with a c pro. Just connect the hose, squeeze the trigger and check the gauge. With 2 times the cooling boosters enjoy the comfort of the 1 selling coldest air. Nothing cools like a c pro. Yet up 90 fall short in getting key nutrients from food alone. Lets do more. Add one a day mens complete with key nutrients we may need. Plus hearthealth support with b vitamins. One a day mens in gummies and tablets. Breaking news, Michael Flynn aturning over documents. Just a comthings. We were talking before about how this was a back channel. This was not a back channel. This was a secret channel. The reason was so americans couldnt intercept it during the transition and possibly beyond that. That is unusual because if what you were trying to establish was a back channel, why not wait a couple more weeks when President Trump is in the white house and you can do whatever you wanted . Doesnt that confirm if there is an instinct that says lets be careful that bureaucrats and our own government might leak information to the press or wherever, that happened. Thats happened a lot. A, this is not the first time its happened in history and b, the context matters to your point about russia, this all happened amid allegations of russians hacking democratic committees and staffers. So thats one point. The other point is when the times broke the story about Jared Kushner meeting with this russian banker back in march, we were told that they didnt know why he kislyak had recommended the white house said they didnt know why. They didnt know why. They initially said i think shortly after our story, not to us or suggested it on background to people and then since have indicated similarly that this was about establishing a back channel. That he was believed to be close to putin and the idea was kushner wanted to find someone as close to putin as possible so he could understand directly. It reminds me of the Clinton White house in the 90s when anything related to hillary clinton, the senior white house aids would walk on egg shells and it was very difficult for them to go to the president s wife and say hey, theres some troubling reporting in the press. We need all the facts. Because its the Family Member of the president. Kushner, for some reason, it just seems like the senior white house staff is scared, doesnt want to talk to him, doesnt want to pressure him. What do you make of . I would say Jared Kushner is the Robert Kennedy of the Trump Administration. I would disagree about back channels and secret channels. In the kennedy era, the knowledge was limited to the two brothers. They kept it out of the state department. They kept everything away from everybody. I get the comparison but at that point there hadnt been all the u. S. Intelligence agencies saying russia had tried to involve themselves and had deeply involved themselves in the u. S. Election . I think this is vastly over blown. What about the point of the changing story out of the white house . That we dont know why they had this meeting and no we do. I think theres some concern about secrecy, so theyre not filling out forms saying some of this. I do think thats a concern. Youre saying thats a legitimate thing to be concerned about . Secrecy, of course. I dont understand that at all. If theyre confirming on the record in march that they had this meeting, why say we have no idea why it is that kislyak would recommend kushner meet with gor kauv, why would you drag that up . Theyre newcomers in the field of diplomacy. Thats a different point. I think that is a very fair point is that youre dealing largely with people who have not been in politics and government. That i think is a real thing. I think theres a lot of that feeling on both sides of this divide. On the one hand youve got people in the white house looking at the Washington Community saying we dont trust you. Thats not what im talking about. Thats not an absurd instinct either. If it is not true, then deny it. If it is true, then explain it now so people can understand. But the fact theyre still dancing around it, it only causes maggie and others like her and ryan to do more you know what the white house has said in the past. Is that the president i dont remember whether it was active or fast moving, that they cannot keep up. You dont buy that, clearly . Im sure his moves are too slick. He cant even put his press guy out there to respond to what has been the hot story of the whole week. That is ridiculous. But it does beg the question of what all the secrecy is about underlying it. Its not about a back channel. It could just be incompetent. No, incompetence is a rough word but i think a lot of it is newness to government. It looks weird, it smells fishy and all that. But clearly weve known for a long time that donald trump viewed russia differently than most of us did. I saw them as an