Breaking new, Unanswered Questions about the Largest Private Bank in russia and the Trump Organization and why President Trump made those wiretapping accusations. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. Sources tell cnn theres a federal investigation into a odd computer server relationship between the Trump Organization and a russian bank. Could it be the root of President Trumps intame miscellaneous wiretapping accusations against president obama . Plus our man in moscow. Jon huntsman signs on for what may be the toughest job in the Trump Administration, ambassador to russia. Well talk about all of that. Cnns justice correspondent pamela brown is looking into this. What have you learned about the investigation . Don, weve learned fbi investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a Computer Connection between the Trump Organization and a russian bank called alpha bank. According to several sources familiar with this investigation, this is the same server mentioned in a breitbart article that a white house official had sparked President Trumps series of tweets last saturday accusing investigators of tapping his phones. Cnn is told there was no fisa warrant on this server. The questions about the connection between the server and the russian bank were widely dismissed four months ago as an attempt by alpha bank to block them. We have learned the fbi counterintelligence team, the same one looking into russias suspected interference in the 2016 election, is still examining it. One source said the server is seen as odd and perplexing but the fbi has more work to do to determine what was behind the unusual activity. Whether there was any significance to it. The fbi declined to comment and the white house did not respond to our request for comment. Pamela brown in washington, thank you for that, appreciate it. I want to bring in cnn Investigative Reporter jose p palieri. Exaction plain what was the socalled communications about . Whats so odd is this russian bank repeatedly looked up the very unique internet address of one particular computer server in the u. S. Being used by the Trump Organization. In the computer world its equivalent to looking up someones phone number over and over again. Its looking up contact information. So while there isnt necessarily a phone call, usually it indicates something that might be an intention to communicate. Thats what we heard from several computer scientists. One particular group of computer scientists who looked at this obtained these leaked internet records. Records they were never, ever supposed to make public. And they were puzzled as to why a russian bank was doing this. Was it trying to send an email to the Trump Organization . They couldnt tell. Last summer during the president ial campaign the russian bank looked up the address to this trump corporate server 2,800 times. More lookups than the trump server received from any other source. The only other entity doing so many lookups was spectrum health, a medical facility led by dic devos, husband of betsy devos, who was later appointed as the education secretary by President Trump. These two entities made up 99 of the lookups. The computer scientists we spoke to just found that weird. Now, all of the corporations involved say they never communicated by email with the Trump Organization, and they had different, sometimes competing explanations for the server activity. But they havent provided any proof of what was going on and they dont always agree. For example, the russian bank thinks it was receiver trump Hotel Email Marketing last summer but they couldnt provide cnn with a single email to back that up. Meanwhile the American Marketing Company that would have been sending those trump emails said it wasnt doing that at the time for trumps organization. Alpha bank for its part repeatedly stressed none of its top executives have had any affiliation at all with President Trump or the Trump Organization. In a statement to cnn they said neither alpha bank nor its principals, including two top executives, have had any contact with my trump or his organization. So in essence, what weve got now is a potential computer link that remains a mystery. Still a mystery. And a lot of this is just one other piece of the puzzle. Jose, stand by. I want to bring other folks in. Russia expert matthew rojanski. Cnn National Security analyst juliette cayenne. Steve hall, retired chief of the cia russia operations. Good to have all of you. Stephen, cnn sources are saying this cnn server activity is odd. What is your take . It is odd. At this point its unexplained. Until we get more information as to whether there are any packets flowing right now all we have is just this sort of electronic handshake, if you will, between this particular server in russia from alpha bank and the trump server. From a counterintelligence perspective, on the trump side, what you have is sort of this continuing drumbeat of these incidents of contact and just encounters between the Trump Campaign and team and the russian side. On the russian side, alpha bank. This is not the first time weve heard of alpha bank. Alpha bank mentioned in the steel dossier, the 35page dossier making startling accusations. Youve got this on both sides. The devil is going to be in the counterintelligence details to tease out what exactly is the nature of these contacts and these relationships . We just dont know yet. Congressman kingston, when you hear the fbi is continuing this investigation, to you does that fly in the face of what the white house is saying, that there is no reason to believe that theres a Justice Department investigation . Well, i think the fbis been looking for it. I think everybodys accepted that. You know, i think the question that the white house might have is how long have they been investigating . You know, in terms of this computer, frankly if alpha bank was a front group for russian espionage or russian intelligence agency, it would make sense. Theyve tried to break into the rnc computers. I believe comey said that in his testimony today. They did break into the dnc computers. So to try to break into the Trump Campaign any way they could, that could be consistent with everything else. When we find out what this really does an attempt to hack, is that what youre saying . Yes. I think theres a possibility thats the explanation. Its worth making a distinction, were talking about the largest bank in russia, a respected bank. It the might be its possible the communication that was going on here could be that hackers were trying to break into this Trump Organization server, but ive not heard yet from any of the experts that the bank itself would have been trying to do this. So we should be making that distinction. Lets talk to a National Security expert right now. Juliette, to you, what questions do you have about this connection to russia and the Trump Organization . Could it be a potential hack . Yeah, but i want to put that that wouldnt be in my top five what it is. We dont know at this point based on the reporting whether data was communicate order if it was a whole bunch of pings and there might an series of explanations. But i disagree with steve. I think, look, this is another data point. And whats clear is that at this stage theres a whole lot of odd. Thats what im going to say, a whole lot of odd. We tend to think of these cases as theres going to be a csi type moment, right, the eureka moment, someones going to find the email from putin to trump proving collusion. Thats not going to happen. What is happening, what were seeing over the course of this investigation, is a whole lot of different pieces that are going to try to be put together that may lead across the spectrum from everything is benign and the Trump Campaign or his people knew nothing of what was going on, to direct collusion. Im not even at the direct collusion stage yet. But theres enough pieces over the course of the last four months that you cant sit here anymore and say, i can explain all of them away. And i think most people, thats why most people want an independent investigation or at least to have these investigations continue to try to put the pieces together. Jose . It is worth noting the computer scientists who looked at this data didnt come to any concrete conclusions. They want an independent investigation. Thats why they surfaced this. Theres no evidence that these two entities were communicating. The idea is that they want someone to look at this. Remember, wait a minute, remember theyre looking at illegal information. Theyre looking at information that should not even be in front of them. So for us to be saying theres some kind of fairness arbitrator is ridiculous. Also to say that the bipartisan Intelligence Committees of the house and the senate cant have a thorough investigation, or the doj, or the fbi, i think its partisan to always be talking and always go back to special prosecutor, special investigation. As if there arent good people who can look at this fairly. Is it illegal information . It was leaked. Then you also hear people say, no, there was no fisa request. You cant tell people if there was a fisa request or not. Thats part of the deal. You can have a room of 1,000 fbi agents, only three of them will know if there actually is one or not. I think if there is one go ahead, go ahead juliette, sorry. No, i think thats right. And i do agree with jack. Theres no reason to suspect that the least suspended Intelligence Committee is led by people who want to come to a conclusion. I think its interesting that after their pet hair eraserings with comey, everything does go quiet. I think theres a commitment. I would urge the white house to stop communicating with the republicans on those committees to get them to try to spin up stories, which happened just in the last two weeks. Because its important for both jacks side of the aisle and for democrats that the American Public has confidence. Because once again, were looking at the story in the context of stories coming out daily now. And as i said, its a whole lot of odd. Thats all i can say right now. Theres not going to be this smoking gun. But theres a lot of evidence thats leading towards something, something could have been going on and we need to come to a conclusion about it. Matthew, russia expert on this panel, first of all explain alpha bank, what it means to the russian people, what it means to the russian government, to Vladimir Putin, so on. So the sheer size and significance of alpha bank, alpha group, which is a large Financial Holding company, this is like the bank of america of russia. You find their atms and their branches on every Street Corner in moscow and across the entire former soviet world in europe, everywhere. The sheer size of this thing is part of why there would be many Unanswered Questions. Its not like its a narrow, Boutique Group thats finding out, theyre in communication with the Trump Organization, tells you what the nature of that relationship might have been. This is a bank that could have been doing a million different things. So an investigation would probably reveal a little bit more. But as juliette said, probably not a smoking gun. I want to point out, there are two things were not doing while were having this conversation and doing an investigation. One is developing a policy toward russia. Two is deterring anyone from doing any further hacking. Whether thats china, iran, anybody else. It reminds me of youre speeding along the highway, someone else got pulled over by a cop and is being harangued by the cop, you know theres no cop waiting for you ahead so speed on by. I think that weve got to do everything at once. Weve got to walk and chew gum. Stand by. Well continue this discussion. Announcer get on your feet for the nastiest bull in the state of texas. [bullfighting music] [burke] billygoat ruffians. Seen it. Covered it. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum heres to the wildcats this i gotta try. Bendy. Spendy weekenders. 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Dont start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. Joint pain and damage. Can go side by side. Ask how enbrel can help relieve joint pain and help stop joint damage. Enbrel, the number one rheumatologistprescribed biologic. Were learning more about michael flynn, the president s former National Security adviser. Matthew rojanski, juliette could i i dont know, steve hall, congressman kingston. Michael flynn, fired for lying to the Vice President about his connection with the russian ambassad ambassador. Now we learn he was working as a Foreign Agent for turkey, paid more than 500,000 while working for the Trump Campaign, and just filed paperwork to make that official two days ago. Seems like that would have been Important Information for the American People to know. I think it would have been. But remember, he was fired not because of his connection with russia, but because he lied about his conversation with russia. Not because he lied about his connection with russia. And that was the conversation in which he said he did not bring up sanctions, later it was shown that he did. And by the way, that was probably illegal to have him as a private citizen at that time, he was Collateral Damage you might say. And that was illegally leaked. But nonetheless, he did mislead the Vice President about it, thats why he was fired. But you know, i do think that scrutiny in terms of who have you been working for, who do you have connections with, i think thats all fair game for the president s staff. Thats just part of the scrutiny and transparency of public office. Does this sound like he was extremely vetted . It does not. And i think that everybody else has been and everybody else will be. Lessons learned. You know, one of the things, don, about trump coming as a business man, he doesnt try to rig things. Im not making the im not trying to go back to the election on that, through use of that word. Buffett things i know when i was in the house is that often we knew exactly what the votes would be on amendments before we brought it to the floor because we wanted to win every time. Thats the political way to do things. I think a businessmans way is, hey, im not going to have perfect, im going to try some things, some things are going to fail what are you talking about . Im talking about with some of his appointees. With mr. Flynn. Also the secretaries, army, air force, navy thats okay, listen, i dont mean to cut you off and i dont want to be rude. I think thats okay when youre working in private business, you can handle your business the way you want to. As president of the United States youre doing the American Peoples business. When you say people should be extremely vetted and youre going to have the best team and do the best job, you need to do that and not run it as a private corporation. Thats not what the u. S. Government is. Go ahead, juliette. Don, i talked to a bunch of people who know this law a little bit better than i do in terms of what was flynns obligation. Thats a lot of money to forget, 500,000. He clearly either forgot or theres a casualness about ethics, i would say, around trump and his people. But the more interesting thing is why did he decide to do it now . And most lawyers who know this law suspect that the fbi, that hes cleaning up his house. That he has lawyers that are saying, you need to get your house in order. Like paying back taxes when youre about to be nominated for something. Youre talking about flynn . Talking about flynn. That its very that the reason why he did it now, hes out of the limelight, he doesnt have the job. Is actually because he needs to clean up his background because either theres an investigation or things are ongoing. Weve long suspected that flynn is part of all this russia stuff. And so the timing has to be discussed. Why all of a sudden does he wake and up say, i forgot that i was an agent of a foreign power. So likely at least people who have this experience, people who come forward, its like pa