Poor judgment. And those who met with the Trump Officials in 2016 now admitted she has closer ties to the kremlin than previously disclosed. Was she lying all along. The nra connection. Allegations that the russians may have funneled money through the nra. It is a cnn exclusive. And korean thaw, a historic meeting between kim jongun and the south korea president , the two vowing to finally end the korean war and work toward denuclearize is. Is north korea already dismantling the test site. Wolf blitzer is off. Im jim acosta. Youre in the situation room. Announcer this is cnn Breaking News. Were following Breaking News, including a new report that russian lawyer at a 2016 meeting with top Trump Officials had closer ties to the kremlin
than previously disclosed including working as an informant and sources say nra is setting aside documents related to the kremlin with allegations they may have illegally funneled money to help the Trump Campaign. And the Breaking News and more with congre
meeting between trump campaign officials and the russians that folks have lied about or attempted to conceal and now we learn that this woman lied about her own role there. that she wasn t just a private attorney, but she, in fact, had ties to the kehm ly kremlin a worked for the government as an informant. so this is very disturbing. this is, i think, just one more piece of evidence about this relationship and this ongoing relationship between the trump campaign and russia officials that continue to be the subject of meetings and secret conversation and concealment. so i think it is very concerning. and how does this change or change the way you see the offer of russian dirt on hillary clinton that apparently came before this meeting? what do you make of that? well i think, again, there is a lot of suggestion from the president there is no evidence of collusion. there is a lot of things already in the public domain that special provide evidence of contacts between the campaign by
residence, requested by either flynn or his son. the meeting was later described in an e-mail to the russian embassy as very productive. and trump s personal lawyer michael cohen and russian-american business associate felix satir would settlement ties between trump and vladimir putin. during an e-mail exchange about building a trump tower in moscow, sadir wrote to cohen, if quote, putin gets on stage with vladimir putin for a ribbon cutting, donald opens the republican nomination. the president welcomed the report but only focused on the headline, the republicans determined there was no evidence of collusion but there is a lot of new information in here and including, jim, a contact between the nra and e-mail describing how russia wanted to establish a back channel with the trump campaign using the nra and also this issue with veselnitskaya, and the contact yz the russians did not end in
to bolster the trump campaign. there have been allegations that russians were going to funnel money through the nra and we sought to investigate that. there were witnesses with direct knowledge regarding those allegations that we sought to bring in. the republicans refused. reporter: the nra is publicly denied any contact from the fbi or accepting any illegal donations but sources say they are preparing, collecting documents as due diligence and dealing with congressional scrutiny. the renewed attention highlights the uneasy alliance between nra and tor shin, a relation shaip that ensnared members of trump campaigntreme and including advisers like donald trump jr., jared kushner and jeff sessions. the nra went all-in for trump in 2016. i ve been a member for a long time and my boys are members so to get the endorsement, believe me, is a fantastic honor. reporter: it spent $30 million backing the trump
white house. a lot of cabinet chaos. jeff, thank you very much. let s get more on this with democratic congressman david cicilini of rhode island, from the foreign affairs and judiciary committee. thanks for john joining. and information about this russian who met can trump officials and working with the kremlin. how concerning is that and how much of a surprise was it? well i think it is very concerning. remember this is a meeting according to donald trump jr. s only e-mails that was set up because the russians had dirt that they wanted to share with mr. trump s political opponent hillary clinton. this included his campaign manager and other trump officials, including his son. this is an individual who let s remember they first lied about the purpose of the meeting, issued a statement they discussed adoptions. we know that wasn t true. this is one more example of a