Hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to the president s personal attorney. Good morning, everyone, welcome to early start. Im dave briggs. Im christine romans. Exactly 5 00 a. M. In east, 6 00 p. M. On the korean peninsula. 1 30 p. M. In tehran. Well have live reports in a few minutes. Lets start with the breaking news. Mike pompeo in north korea this hour. According to south korean government officials, the secretary of state is expected to return home with three american detainees. I want to bring in cnns paula hancocks. She is live. She is in seoul for us where the hopes are high certainly here that these three men will come home. Any indication that it is official yet . Reporter no indication at this point, no. We have had a pool report from journalists traveling with the secretary of state. They said that he had an hourlong meeting this morning with the north korean former spy chief cho. It was behind closed doors they discussed the agenda for the summit between kim jongun and u. S. President donald trump. Then they discussed the schedule with pompeo for the rest of the day. There were no details released. Its 6 00 p. M. , as you say, here on the korean peninsula. We also know that they had lunch together, and the pool was allowed in to see that. It was an amicable situation. Both sides complimenting the other side. The North Koreans saying they havent decided to open up and denuclearize because of sanctions as the u. S. President has claimed. They have done it because they want to focus on their economy. Also just yesterday, there was another surprise visit by the north Korean Leader kim jongun to china. He flew over there and visited xi jinping, the president. Clearly xi jinping wanting to show once again that he is the main ally of north korea, that he is in the center of all this flurry of diplomatic activity. What we dont know at this point is how kim jongun is likely to react to the fact that the u. S. President has pulled out of that nuclear iran deal. Critics here and around the world have said if he doesnt necessarily know what the next u. S. President will do, will he agree a deal with this u. S. President . Fascinating. Paula hancocks in seoul. Thank you. Major International News elsewhere as President Trump ignores pleas from key european allies announcing the u. S. Is quitting the Iran Nuclear Deal. It is clear to me that we can not prevent an Iranian Nuclear bomb under the decaying and rotten structure of the current agreement. The iran deal is defective at its core. If we do nothing, we know exactly what will happen. The president plans to impose new sanctions on the Iranian Regime and says any country that helps Iran Obtain Nuclear Weapons would also be strongly sanctioned. Reaction to the move as you would imagine swift both at home and abroad. Lets bring in Cnns Fred Pleitgen live with that reaction from tehran. Good morning. Reporter dave, good morning. Very swift here in iran. In fact, earlier today, iranian lawmakers, hardline lawmakers, burned an American Flag and a copy of the Nuclear Agreement inside parliament while chanting death to america. They believe its the u. S. Thats isolating itself and that had shown that it cannot be trusted either by iran or by anyone else. Now, the moderate president here in this country, rouhani, took a more moderate tone. He came out shortly after President Trump spoke last night. He said that he believes that it might be possible to salvage the iran Nuclear Agreement but without the United States. The iranians are saying theyre going to look at what the European Countries which as you said have been alienated by President Trump because they want to preserve this deal, what those countries are going to do. All of this, though, dave, is easier said than done. Theres a lot of pressure from the u. S. On European Companies especially on germany and france and European Countries to not do any business with iran. Thats going to be quite problematic. The iranians have said that if the deal completely falls apart, they can ramp up their Nuclear Program again very quickly and to a higher level than it was before. They also say they have no intention of building a bomb. Fred pleitgen live for us in tehran. Thanks. President trumps decision to pull out of the iran deal drew Strong Negative reaction from democrats and some republicans. Even some lawmakers who voted against the deal are saying that withdrawing is not the answer. This is a little like replace and repeal. They had these words, they used them in the campaign, and they dont have a real plan here. I dont think its a wise move. Oftentimes when you get into office you realize that may have worked in a campaign or that was a good line or whatnot, but you realize its not good for the country at this point given where we are with negotiations now especially with north korea. Our allies and adversaries need to know that we are reliable. There was support for the president s decision. Florida senator marco rubio arguing that iran has used sanctions relief from the deal to build up its Missile Program and boost its support for hezbollah and syrias assad regime. Former president obama weighing in with a pointed statement calling the move misguided. He said, in a democracy there will always be changes in policies and priorities from one administration to the next. Consistent flouting of agreements that our country is a party to risks eroding americas credibility and puts us at odds with the worlds major powers. President trump has pulled out of the iran deal, the paris climate accord, and the transpacific partnership. Three International Agreements of the obama era. And the key being no idea whats next in any of the situations. Special counsel Robert Muellers investigators have questioned a Russian Oligarch close to Vladimir Putin about hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to Michael Cohen. A source telling cnn the u. S. Affiliate of the oligarchs company made the large payments to President Trumps personal attorney in the months after the election. Now a startling allegation from Stormy Daniels attorney that these payments funded the hush money to daniels. Cnn has more from washington. Reporter muellers investigators have questioned a Russian Oligarch named viktor vikselberg about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments made to President Trumps personal attorney, Michael Cohen, in 2017. The payments went from vikselbergs u. S. Linked Company CalledColumbus Nova to cohen. Columbus nova is run by vikselbergs american cousin. And documents that were released by Stormy Daniels attorney, michael avenatti, alleged that half a Million Dollars was paid to cohen beginning in january, 2017. Last month the Trump Administration put vikselberg on a list of sanctioned russians for election interference. Whats not clear is the purpose of the payments that were made to cohen or the nature of the business relationship between cohen and vikselberg, and the fact that investigators are scrutinizing this is significant because it essentially shows that a Company Created by Michael Cohen to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels was also receiving money, that same llc was also receiving money, from a u. S. Company in new york city that is linked to a Russian Oligarch. Shimon, thanks for that reporting. No comment yet from cohen or vikselberg. We have this statement from Columbus Novas general counsel i can confirm that the company is 100 owned and controlled by americans. Any suggestion that at any point in time viktor vikselberg or any of his companies owned or exercised any control over Columbus Nova is patently untrue. With all that in mind, are the revelations a big coincidence or problem for the president . We discuss next. Over. Hey, want to try it . Ok here you go. Over. Under. Hey whoa, pop, pop. Your shoes untied. Ensure hes well taken care of, even as you build your own plans for retirement. See how lincoln can help protect your savings from the impact of longterm care expenses at lincolnfinancial. Com. Or a canythingo. But ive got an idea sir. Get domo. Itll connect us to everything thats going on in the company. Get it for jean whos always cold. For the sales team, it and the warehouse crew. Give us the data we need. In one place, anywhere we need it. Help us do our jobs better. With domo we can run this place together. Well thats thats your job i guess. To give you the protein you need with less of the sugar you dont. Ill take that. 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Is this a new problem for this president . Lets talk about that and more with cnn politics digital director zach wolf live in washington. Is it . Well, its not a good thing. I think the bottom line is that its getting very hard to separate. Even if they dont cross, its getting very hard to separate in peoples minds the Stormy Daniels aspect of this with the russia investigation aspect of this. They both center so much on Michael Cohen, the president s lawyer, at this point. Lets switch if we can to the iran deal. The president pulling out yesterday predictably and pleasing his supporters. A campaign promise, another one checked. Probably angering our european allies as well as those in tehran. And the president has shown that he nixes deals. Does he fix them . That remains the question. Tpp, paris climate, the iran deal, let alone the individual mandate in obamacare. How does he fix deals, in particular this one . Whats next . I dont know whats next. They dont know whats next, and thats totally clear right now. There is no plan b iran deal. You see, you know, you mentioned paris climate deal. The u. S. Is now one of the only countries if not the only country not a part of that deal. You mentioned tpp, the countries of tpp have gone around the u. S. Essentially. Iran, rouhani and who knows if this is possible because it would require european allies essentially to cross the u. S. To stay in the iran deal without the u. S. So this argument of isolating the u. S. , that company is isolating the u. S. By pulling out of the deals, theres a lot to back that up. Now you have the eu and china and these other countries talking with one voice about what the u. S. Is doing, and the u. S. Is there alone. The wall street journal in a pretty fascinating editorial said that this is actually obama made this easier for trump to pull out because obama did not get a coalition to make it a treaty. This was this could have been done with more support in the u. S. To make it more binding. The Washington Post says this moves us, the trump decision moves us closer to war. This is what they say the nuclear deal struck with iran three years ago was far from perfect. President trumps decision to abrogate it over the opposition of our european allies and without a Clear Strategy for replacing it is reckless, selfdefeating. The president has frequently said that he has no wish for further mideast wars. His decision has made one more likely. Whats the next move here . You know, its its interesting, and thats one of the things you saw the french president wanted was for the iran deal to be renegotiated while this stayed in place. While the old one stayed in place. Yahoo ur in a world where the youre in a world where the u. S. Is pulling out. Kind of whats going to happen next. The cliffhanger aspect of this. And trump views everything with this element of drama. I dont think anybody knows exactly what happens next. Yeah. Domestically, big night politically speaking. Primaries in a couple of states. We focus in particular on three big ones in West Virginia, don blanken sha eenship finishes a third, patrick morrissey, a. G. , the winner who will take on joe mnuchin in indiana. Mime braun, somewhat trumpian in that hes a businessman, outsider. And in ohio, jim renacci wins there. Lets focus on what happened in West Virginia where this excon, blankenship, a fascinating figure who said he was trumpier than trump was knocked out by trump because a tweet he sent out really was the decisive blow. What does last night mean for the president . Its a huge deal for republicans generally. You know, we talked about the difficulty of obama to get something, to get a treaty passed. The only reason trump is able to do anything in congress right now is because to the extent that he can is because he has that senate majority. So the loss of blankenship last night makes it very possible that they can knock off joe mnuchin in West Virginia. It makes the map so much more appealing to republicans going into these november elections. It was a huge deal. Yeah. And blankenship had called Mitch Mcconnell cocaine mitch. A trumpian nicknaming. Then this from the folks on team mitch thanks for playing, a takeoff of a narcos. The netflix poster. And they responded saying, low blow, mitch. Kind of funny. Trolling. Thank you, zach. Who knew Mitch Mcconnell was so funny . Who knew . Mitch playing hardball. See you in a bit. Ahead, a canadian pitcher making some Major League History in his home country. We have the details. The next big thing in food was once a little paper box. Now we can easily take out food from a restaurant. Lets stay in and bingewatch the snow. Genius. Now, the next big thing is the Capital One Savor card. Earn 3 cash back on dining, 2 on groceries, and 1 on all other purchases. 2 on groceries,. 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