Foreign trip since taking office. They met with u. S. Military leaders and visited the uss arizona memorial to honor the americans killed at pearl harbor. First stop after hawaii japan. The first of five Asian Countries the president will be visiting. Hell meet with asian leaders increasingly concerned by a Nuclear Armed north korea and of course the inflammatory rhetoric between north koreas unpredictable leader and President Trump. Also threatening to overshadow the trip, the intensifying russia investigation back home. Former Campaign Adviser carter page is backing away from his earlier denials and now confirms to cnn a 2016 meeting with Russias Deputy Prime Minister. Even more significant, page says a few people in the campaign knew about his moscow meeting and afterward he even sent an email about it to a campaign aide. Lets begin in honolulu. Cnns ryan nobles is traveling with the president , ryan. Fredricka, good morning from honolulu. The president hoping that this trip to the
He was not a person who was involved with the daytoday operations of the campaign or a person i recall interacting with on a regular basis at all. This was a campaign volunteer. He wasnt somebody who was a Senior Adviser as many of you want to bill him to be. He was swb thomebody that playe minimal role if any at all and part of a voluntary Advisory Board. I never heard of papadopoulos. He never showed up at trump tower. He was the coffee boy. The bigger question that should be looming over the president , who in his circle knew what papadopoulos was up to. We know that papadopoulos revealed to muellers investigators he had long planned to arrange a meeting in russia between members of the Trump Campaign and russian officials. Nbc news is reporting that papadopoulos superior former Trump Campaign cochair sam clovis testified before a federal grand jury last week. Now clovis attorney appears to deny a key part of what papadopoulos revealed to investigators, that our client encouraged a
Earlier this month to making a false statement to the fbi. His plea, his emails and other documents relating to his arrests that came out today tell us things we did not know until now. Whats more, they provided key new points along a timeline that special Counsel Robert Mueller could possibly build into a case that team trump colluded with russia to win the election. On top of all that another document unsealed today suggests that George Papadopoulos barely on the radar until now, might have been wearing a wire. We have koerpts covering all the angles tonight on him, on manafort, on the president as well as a team of legal and political experts. We begin with cnn man u rang u and George Papadopoulos who is front and center. Soon after joining the Trump Campaign in march 2016 George Papadopoulos had a meeting with a london based professor who promised dirt on Hillary Clintons campaign. He had multiple interactions with this professor. And the professors promise, actually came around th
The news has trump insiders buzzing today with questions swirling about papadopoulos and how an unnamed High Ranking Campaign official was also involved. Some observers suggest the papadopoulos arrest earlier in the summer is part of a Legal Process described to me as climbing the ladder, raising the question, who comes next . The indictments track with an up tick in the president s fury over the russia investigation and what one trump adviser today described as the president s neverwaning anger at his attorney general Jeff Sessions decision to recuse himself from the russia probe. The clearest sign yet that the president feels boxed in on russia. He took to his favorite medium and tried to distract from todays bombshell developments by tweeting this. Quote, sorry, but this is years ago, before Paul Manafort was part of the Trump Campaign. Why arent crooked hillary and the dems the focus . Also there is no collusion. Lets get to our reporters and guests to break down these extraordinar
Correspondents pamela brown and evan perez. Tell us what youre learning. Jared kushner now turned over documents in recent weeks to special counsel robert mueller. Investigators now have begun asking questions about kushners role in the firing of fbi director james comey. Sources tell us that muellers investigators have expressed interest in kushner as part of the probe into russian meddling. That probe includes potential obstruction of justice, and the motivation for comeys firing is the believed to be part of that. Its a sign that the investigators are reaching into the inner circle and extended beyond the 2016 campaign to actions taken at the white house by high level officials. Its not clear how kushners advice to the president might play a part in all of this. Sources close to the white house tell us, jake, that based on their knowledge, kushner is not a target of this investigation. Sources tell us that kushner voluntarily turned over those documents that he had from the campaign