That statement read, we primarily discussed a program about the adoption of russian children. President trumps lawyers admit that the president did dictate that misleading statement. But they did say this. I do want to be clear that the president was not involved in making a statement or issuinging a statement. It came from donald trump jr. Thats what we know. Why the changing stories, why did the president say that he had nothing to do with meeting with the russian lawyers when he did. I said that in my statement, i have talked about that before, that happens when you have cases like this. I think its very important to point out, that in a situation like this, you have over time facts develop. Thats what investigations do. Cnn White House Correspondent Boris Sanchez is in new jersey where the president is spending
his summer break. Why is the legal team bringing up that meeting this weekend . Skb reporter because that meeting at trump tower in 2016 could present legal issues for the p
russia investigation. however, butina has agreed to cooperate. we are going to start with that breaking news on butina. she worked with her republican boyfriend, apaul erickson, u.s. person one at the behest of alexander torsion. the goal? quote, establish unofficial lines of communication with americans having power and influence over u.s. politics for the benefit of the russian federation. joining me now justice reporter julia ainsley. can you explain how this person, player, who we had no idea about before all these investigations, how she fits into this increasingly large web of investigations into russian ties with the trump campaign and apparently republican party politics? yeah. let s take a step back.
looking for gun rights in the united states might look at what are the gun rights that currently exist in russia, i can tell you right now vladimir putin would never allow an organization as powerful as the nra or gun rights being advocated in his own country. that s a big tell right there. the other thing is to think about what the optics are going to be with this later. that trip, for example. you see so many gop or nra connected people showing up in photos on social media going back to 2015. this was engineered way far out. she made connections from top to bottom state. look at the state level. how many politicians have we seen in pictures? she was accessing in two years every level of the u.s. influence on the conservative side. and so i think people have to ask themselves why is this person here? what do they have to gain and who are they working for? does this even make sense? when we look back in the rear-view mirror, we re going to say why did anyone think at the nra this was a
barbara mcquaid, what s your take on how this plea has played out. we know this is separate from robert mueller s investigation, but is it possible that it could later be connected to it? yeah. i think this agreement to cooperate with the government would also allow robert mueller and his team to take a shot at talking to her to see what information she could provide. this statute that she pleaded guilty to, conspiracy to violate 951, acting as an agent of a foreign government requires the person admit they were under the direction and control of a foreign government. she admitted in her plea agreement in the statement of the offense that she cultivated these relationships with the plan to put quiet pressure on them later. and so this is espionage trade craft. it s not a violation of the espionage act in stealing information from the government, but it s in cultivating relationships to be able to coerce them later. that s an incredibly dangerous relationship when this is an agent o
it. reporter: last week, mollie was dropped off at a boyfriend s house to dog sit while he was out of town. later she was seen jogging. but neighbors say they used to see her all the time. she would come down the road and if i was over there working on my flowers, i would, you know, she would just wave and say hi and off she would go because that s the house right down there. that s where her boyfriend lives. right down there, that white house. it s just like this girl right now. now i pay attention to what they have on, you know, she s got a headband, she s talking on her shoes. but before we never would pay any attention, we would just glance and wave. reporter: they were some of the first volunteers who searched for molly. which went to corn field and walked corn field searching and question didn t turn up anything. we wanted to find her so bad,