insane. that level of vacancy is ridiculous. the judges, the u.s. attorneys, there are a lot of things the government is not functioning well. and the cabinet secretaries aren't happy. >> internally staffing, i agree. and if he can streamline and make a more efficient the process by which they staff the government, i think the cabinet secretaries will more help in their agencies could do more. the first external political problem, we'll see how he navigates politics when they do the transgender ban. the pentagon is not ready to move on it without clear guidance. with kelly as chief of staff, when mattis comes back, that's not just a military issue they have to deal with. it's an external political problem. maybe he's the right person to navigate that for the president. >> we're getting word on the fate of a bill that congress passed imposing new sanctions on russia over the interference in the election. jeff is at the white house with the latest on that. jeff? >> reporter: anderson, the white house just released a statement a few moments ago saying the president will sign that russian

because they believe the u.s. had changed its policy. is it fair to them for the president to wake up and suddenly it seems like without any preamble or public discussion, to say that they're going to be kicked out of the military? >> well, anderson, it sounds to me like he was having this discussion with his military advisers. i don't know. but that's certainly the way it sounds to me. >> no one will say where the discussion was. it seems like before heads of each branch of the military were caught offguard. >> anderson, i don't know. let me just say this. i hate to disappointment my friend christine. but on a scale of -- >> it's a low bar, jeffrey, low bar. >> when you think of that rally in youngstown last night, the president didn't say this there. if there were a time to maximize it politically, it was right then and there with all the tef vision cameras including cnn were on it, in front of thousands, he could have done that. i honestly don't think this issue registers with most americans. good lord, i saw a poll during the campaign that said abortion didn't even register. that used

, anderson. in 1948, harry truman abolished segregation in the u.s. military. he abolished it. and the federal government, that was the first piece of the federal government to really start opening up to others. and for this to happen now, many years later, it's sad. this is a community, anderson, i'm sure as you know, there are many people who are very concerned. and i brought up a question today in the white house briefing room, that kind of played off of major garrett's question about health care for transgender military personnel. and there was a concern when president-elect donald trump was basking in the glory of his win over hillary clinton. many in the transgender community were concerned about aca changing over to trump care, what it would look like with gender reassignment. they said, if we got the top done now, how could we get the bottom done? we don't know what tomorrow brings. so this community has been concerned about this president for a long time. and now this just adds more fuel to the fire, and going back to your original point, it seems like it is red meat for his s

immigration laws, arrests are up, sessions has sent extra administrative judges to u.s./mexico border to help process cases. today he sent out a statement threatening sanctuary cities who coddle these supposed killers. sessions is the one guy who is delivering on trump's promises at a time when the rest of his agenda seems to be bogged down. i think that's one reason why you saw this kind of timid conservative pushback toward the hazing that sessions has been getting from the president. >> if i could make an incredibly boring point about accuracy, i'm unaware of any prosecutor or police officer in this country who coddles people who carve up young women. i mean, like what does that even mean? it's just not true. >> well. >> what does it mean about coddling people who carve up. >> i'll give you. >> we're almost out of time. >> well, jamiel shaw senior, the african-american whose 17-year-old son was killed by an illegal out of the jail one day. and he kills jameel straw's son, coddled. >> how was he coddled? was he arrested right afterwards? >> he was in jail before this happened. >> what

to do. and i talked to former u.s. attorney general eric holder today in baltimore at the naacp, and he says he's going to come back and start talking in september because he's very concerned with these impediments. he's also saying that we are a nation possibly entering into a crisis. so, at issue is mueller. what mueller is doing. yes, jeff sessions, they've had this back and forth. and jeff sessions did send his resignation in earlier. but the question is, since he and the president don't get along, who did he get that resignation to that the president did not accept the resignation? that's one question. two, jeff sessions, yes, they don't get along, but the issue, why is jeff sessions staying? is he realizing that this situation is bigger than what is on the surface? there are a lot of questions going on. >> jeff sessions not only was an early supporter of the president, also among, you know, a lot of conservatives, among the more nationalistic wing of the republican party, jeff sessions holds a lot of ideals which are really important to those supporters of the president. and he

morning he wrote, "while all agree the u.s. president has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when crimes so far is only leaks against us, fake news." raises an additional whether or not a sitting president can pardon himself while still in office. joining me for their take, two constitutional law experts. norman eisen. cnn contributor and white house ethics czar under president obama. he co-authored an op-ed on this issue last week in "the washington post." and mr. turley. you believe the president has the power to pardon himself. >> what i believe is he can make the argument under the text of the constitution. the constitution does not bar these types of self-pardons. the constitution mentions one exception with regard to impeachment. such as saying a president can pardon his way out of impeachment. >> it says the president shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the united states except in cases of impeachment. >> right. the language is actually not ambiguous. it states an unfettered power with that one exception. usually in the law if you

jeff sessions. current and former u.s. officials telling "the washington post" they know from american intelligence intercepts. if true, it's also possible that the russian ambassador was boasting to his bosses. but if it wasn't a boast and the information bears out, it casts serious doubt on the credibility of jeff sessions, the highest law enforcement official in the land, who denied having any contacts with russians during the campaign about the campaign. this is what attorney general sessions said during his confirmation hearing back in january. >> if there is any evidence that anyone affiliated with the trump campaign communicated with the russian government in the course of this campaign, what will you do? >> senator franken, i'm not aware of any of those activities. i have been called a surrogate at a time or two in that campaign, and i did not have communications with the russians. >> all right. so that was january, and when asked in a written question whether he'd been in contact with anyone connected with any part of the russian government about the 2016 election, ei

ask yourself what incentive would russia have had to want to wade into the u.s. election in an unprecedented fashion to this extent on behalf of donald trump. what leverage does it think it has on donald trump that it went to such lengths to get him elected? and so of course it's absolutely relevant to bob mueller. it's squarely in his purview to go back and look at this pattern of real estate sales where you have properties in palm beach that are selling for double their market value as a potential activity with respect to moneylaundering. you have to go back and look at that, because it may very well explain the motive here on behalf of the russians. it may well establish a connection that would be entirely relevant to a collusion investigation. i want to add one point about mark coralo, he was the spokesman until today for the trump legal team. prior to that a few years back he had the same job as i had at the justice department. i overlapped with many officials that worked with him when i was in the obama justice department. they all spoke tremendously highly of him. this i

investors seeking u.s. immigration visas, labeling him mr. perfect and trump's son-in-law. the promotions are for a kushner building development covered under a u.s. government program called ev-5. it gives foreigners and their families the chance for a greencard as long as they invest at least $500,000 in an american project. and this project is the same one jared kushner's sister was pitching to wealthy chinese investors in beijing in may. nicole kushner meyer used her brother as a selling point, sparking outrage. a statement from jared's lawyer saying jared knew nothing of the promotion, was no longer financially tied to 1 journalist square and would recuse himself from particular matters involving ev-5. from kushner companies came this. kushner companies apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. that was not ms myers' intention. cnn discovered that companies continued to promote the kushner's square property, alluding to or connecting it with jared kushner. >> on the "forbes" magazine in 2016. >> right here? >> reporter: ads

type of thing an investigator would want to get into. >> is any of this linked to the former u.s. attorney in new york. >> yes. in h some ways, some elements of this. grew out of an investigation started here in new york. the and of course -- he did stay on. and was fired in early march. so, the -- element of that which involved paul manafort among others -- among other threats has been subsumed into the larger mueller probe. >> but no evidence that the firing of him had anything -- no connection -- there's been no such sort of reason given on about haba har ra. >> after the events of the first five weeks and wanted to get rid of anybody not on his team. >> any reaction from the white house. >> we do have a response from trump's lawyer, johe raised the question he thought what we reported indicated the special council has gone beyond what his mandate was given two months ago. besides some of these issues are beyond the statute of limitations. >> thanks so much. >> thank you so much. >> joining us now is trump biographer and -- you probably know more about the president's finances

meeting when u.s. intelligence officials at the time briefed then president-elect trump in trump tower, and as comey testified, comey pulled him aside after the meeting and told him about the existence of this dossier or a two-page summary of this dossier. the president is now saying he believes comey did that to get leverage over him to keep his job? >> essentially that comey wanted to keep his job and that was the point in showing it to him. again, the president feels sort of vindicated, as you have seen him say publicly, that comey had to acknowledge under oath that he had told the president three times that he was not under investigation. he said he would not say that publicly because it might change. the president just doesn't accept that as an answer. >> we're going to have more from the interview shortly. let's get some quick impressions from my panel. paul begala, molly ball and jeffrey toobin. matt, you think jeff sessions should step down just out of dignity? >> i think so. this is not the first time that this has happened. remember, there were leaks that donald trump w

goes back to the meeting when u.s. intelligence officials at the time briefed then president-elect trump in trump tower, and to comey has testified, comey pulled him aside after the meeting and told him about the existence of this dossier, or the two-page summary of this dossier. the president is now saying he believes comey did that in order to get leverage over him to keep his job? >> essentially that comey wanted to keep his job and that was the point in showing it to him. again, the president feels sort of vindicated as i think you've seen him say publicly that comey had to acknowledge under oath that he had told the president three times he was under investigation. he said he would not say that publicly because it might change. the president just doesn't accept that answer, and was very frustrated that comey wouldn't say it publicly. again, you know, i think his frustration with that dossier continues, and this was a piece of that. >> if memory serves me correctly, the white house went after cnn and others who reported that comey had -- that intelligence chiefs briefed the pre

significance of the discussion, calling it perfectly normal. a u.s. president often hold private and improve two discussions with other world leaders. however when you look at the context, lack of immediate disclosure from the administration as well as trump's own posture in regard to russia weighing significant questions. also several foreign policy experts we've heard from including david gergen as you mention, saying meeting with a foreign adversary like this for this amount of time without anyone else on the u.s. side when it's just the president alone, they say that is not typical normal practice. >> you have also got new information about donald trump, jr.'s meeting from june 2016 at trump tower. >> yeah, that's right. we've learned the identity of the eighth person in trump tower as ike. he goes all the way back to 1989 with the russian oligarch and business associate of donald trump. he was an employee of the family. he was born in the soviet union, studied in moscow. is now a u.s. citizen. he actually appeared, take a look at this video, this is exclusively obtained by cnn.

leaders were present. president trump sat down next to the russian president and without a u.s. translator, only the russian translator, why is that key? there's no other witness to the conversation other than the russian president and his translator. and this of course, follows the previous meeting between putin and trump, the announced meeting between the two of them where you only had the secretary state not only but there were other witnesses to that conversation who could tell us what happened who didn't have skin in the game. that's the key with these meetings. that's why by policy normally, you have either career state department people or something that give you a record of what happened there. this is what we don't have. >> was it just the three of them or were there other leaders around? >> well, it's a dinner party, right? multiple tables. but as to who was pri have i to the conversation, it was just putin, trump, and the russian translator. this was not an insignificant pull aside as often happens at major events like this. you shake hands, you speak for five minutes. by the wh

soviet union, studied in moscow, is now a u.s. citizen. he actually appeared -- take a look at this video. this is exclusively obtained by cnn. he's staying in the background highlighted, standing next to donald trump in the right there. this was in 2016 and later he was at the meeting with the agalarav family with rob goldstone who had promised incriminating information on hillary clinton before that e-mail exchange. his attorney said he attended that meeting thinking he would be needed as a translator. he said he never had any involvement with the russian government. he also said special counsel prosecutors have already reached out to his client seeking information, and he says his client is fully cooperating, anderson. >> pam brown, a lot of details. let's bring in the panel, kristin powers, james blow, david gregory, mike shields and fiona. does this seem normal to you, david gregory? the white house goes into detail that there was a two-hour meeting with vladimir putin and makes a big deal to not disclose this? >> if it is a one-hour meeting, it is a big deal. that's a long tim

u.s. citizen over the phone and said that he was not employed by the russian government or working on behalf of the russian government at the time of this meeting. of course because we don't know his name, it's unclear what his history. he also caution he doesn't know more than what he has claimed. there are question, anderson, about why he was there. the agalarov family nor their attorney has publicly said why as you pointed out in our last discussion, the attorney last week claimed that the agalarovs had nothing to do with the meeting even though they were mentioned in the e-mail exchange that don jr. released. but he says that his impression from speaking with the eighth person if we want to call him that over the phone, that he was initially there to make sure that the attorney, that the female russian attorney got to the meeting. there's still many questions and mystery continues to shroud who this person is. really the only person we know of that hasn't been publicly identified, anderson. >> yeah, you know, we talk about the agalarovs. i guess i just don't understand the attorne

was a u.s. citizen and he also said that he was not employed by the russian government at the time of this meeting but acknowledged that he didn't know his entire history. of course, we still don't know his name. they have not publically explained who this employee was who attended but based on this information, that he was also there to help that the russian attorney who was mentioned in that e-mail exchange get to the meeting. >> what i don't understand about this is i talked to the attorney for the family early last week, and he never mentioned there was a representative for the family at the meeting. in fact, he said that they really knew nothing about this, that the younger son, the pop star, simply was doing a favor for an acquaintance in making the introduction to donald trump jr., and that was basically it. it seems to contradict what their own attorney said early on. >> this was really fascinating because i thought the same thing, anderson. i had spoken to their attorney on friday and it seemed like he was trying to figure it out because we were the first to report there was

me this person who he declined to name claimed the phone conversation that he was a u.s. citizen and also said that he was not employed by the russian government at the time of the meeting. but fast acknowledged he didn't know his entire history. we don't know him name. agalarov and their attorney haven't publicly explained who the employee was. attorney tells me based on his conversation with agalarov he was there to help that the russian attorney who was mentioned in the e-mail exchange get to the meeting. >> what i don't understand about this is i talked to the attorney for the agalarov family early last week, and he never mentioned that there was a representative for the family at the meeting. in fact he said that the agalarov's knew nothing about this. that the younger son the pop star simply was doing a favor for an acquaintance in making the introduction to donald trump jr. that was basically it. it seems to contradict what the agalarov's own attorney said early on sfwl that was really fascinating. i thought the same thing. i had spoken to the agalarov attorney on friday and i

set up some back channels to avoid u.s. intelligence. all of these start to take on a new context and we have to look at the big picture, not just this meeting. >> to your earlier point of just how the white house should be answering this, in france the president gave a very long answer about going into the details of this. how much does this hurt the agenda that the white house hopes to move forward? seems like a lot of folks on capitol hill thinks it is. >> sure. this russian issue in general, the whole issue is threatening to engulf the presidency and that is agenda stifling. he could ask congress for the russia sanctions bill immediately, which would send a strong bipartisan message. he could order all staff to fully cooperate, tuf believely and bring any information to the special counsel. he could order a full accept operation to white house stan so use that information to create a presidential task force designed to gift american people confidence that we won't have meddling in the future. that is a set of actions, bold, decisive, exactly the kinds of things he ran on as in

of this. a lobbyist well known in washington pushing for a major change in u.s. policy that punishes russian lawyers, promising damaging information that will help the trump campaign and part rob goldstone said was a effort to help donald trump. so not an inconsequential meeting. in fact, very much the opposite. so all the details we're learning fighting the explanation of what the meeting was for. >> the russian lobbyist has given interviews today. has he offered any other details? >> not details butte characterization. he said the meeting was not as substantive as he expected. he said it ended quicker than he expected. it's interesting in that sense he and the trump team are on message there, saying it was nothing. but the fact is when you get there those people in the room, such senior people from the trump side, people with apparently something to offer from the russian side and looking for something in terms of a major change to u.s. policy, those facts tend to fight those descriptions and i spoke to both democratic and republican law makers whos said the circumstances

, particularly one to sway the outcome of a u.s. election is something called plausible deniability a government wants to, eliminate any trace of their fingerprints, in that operation, in the event that, it is discovered. and, the possibility of discovery is going to be much hyp higher in the initial phases before they're sure that the people are on board and willing to help them. and it is useful to think of this. say the context of dating oechlt kay. this, you can say, was a highly suggestive and seductive first date the russians offer. and which donald trump jr. and jared kushner and paul manafort happily accepted. maybe they only got to first base on this first date. the real question here, as an investigator, as counterin tell agent working this case, did they try again and did they go all the way. i don't think we can come to a lot of conclusions just based on this particular meeting. my, gut would tell me that there would have been more approaches after this. and the pattern that you see, after this, of things that have come to light for example, jared kushner's meeting with th

lobbyist there well-known in washington pushing for a major change to u.s. policy that punishes russian leaders, a lawyer there lobbying for that same change, promising damaging information that will help the trump campaign, and information that rob goldstone who set up the meeting also the president said was part of a russian effort to help donald trump. so, again, not an inconsequential meeting. not inconsequential people. in fact very much the opposite. so all the details we're learning very much fighting the initial explanations for what this meeting meant and what this meeting was for. thinking russian lobbyist, russian-american lobbyist, he has given some introduce today. has he offered any other details? >> not details, but a characterization. he said that the meeting was not as substantive as he expected. he said it ended quicker than he expected. he did not think that it was going to be that big a deal. it's interesting in that sense, he and the trump team are on message there saying listen, it was nothing. it went more quickly. we were disappointed. they were disappointed. but

are two areas in which these two countries agree and france is a major ally of the u.s. yes, they've had many disagreements, particularly on climate change, on the -- some free trade agreements and immigration, certainly. but there was a heavy emphasize today with both of these new leaders and this is the youngest president in modern french history and the oldest president in u.s. history, you know, standing side by side, giving each other hugs and pats on the back, trying to make a new start, a new relationship known here. that continues tomorrow at the bastille day parade which coincides with the 100th year anniversary of the u.s. entering into world war i. that's why president trump is here in paris. >> jeff zeleny, thank you very much. i want to go to pamela brown. a new reporting of a time gap on donald trump jr.'s e-mail chain and what might have filled it. what are you learning? >> there are lingering questions whether a phone call ever took place between don junior and emin agalarov. before the meeting. as the e-mails might suggest, if you read them during this excha

hardly a local u.s. concern. russian meddling is a concern in every democracy, every place there is elections, including here in france. that is one of the reasons, of course it was on the minds of many people here. french reporters as well. but it was clear in that press conference, you played the sound just a few moments ago, the president was speaking like a father today. he said his son is a good man and there's zero evidence anything happened in that meeting. that did little to quell the concern of republicans on capitol hill. senator chuck grassley first and foremost chairman of the judiciary committee said he wants to see donald trump junior next week. paul manafort is likely to have a date with congress next week as well. as much as the president wants to move on from this or change the subject, even here in paris he cannot do that. it's not just pesky reporters who are asking this question. it's coming up in his meetings, et cetera. it's also perhaps more importantly on his mind. when he was flying over here last evening, he talked with a group of reporters on air force one

wanted it. >> reporter: trump predicting his pageant could even bring russia and the u.s. closer. >> it really is a great country. it's a very powerful country. it's a country that we have a relationship, but not a great relationship, and i think that this can certainly help that relationship. >> reporter: investigators plan to examine the trump tower meeting and the e-mails. on fox news tuesday, donald trump jr., who does not appear in the 2013 video, said he had limited knowledge of the russian family. >> i met emin once or twice and maintained a casual relationship there, talked about some potential deals and that was the extent of it. they really didn't go anywhere. >> but new video and others show the president's own connections. >> what's wrong with you? >> reporter: in 2013, trump appeared in one of emin's music videos. >> you're always late. you just don't have a pretty face. i'm really tired of you. you're fired! >> and wished him happy birthday in a video posted on emin's instagram. >> emin, i can't believe you're turning 35. >> on cnn's "new day," their lawyer said the e-mail

-- >> reporter: trump predicting his pageant could bring u.s. and russia closer together. >> this could certainly help that relationship. >> reporter: investigators plan to examine the trump tower meeting and the e-mails. on fox news tuesday, donald trump, jr. who does not appear in the 2013 video, said he had limited knowledge of the russian family. >> i met emin once or twice and maintained a casual relationship there, talked about casual deals, that's the extent of it. they didn't go anywhere. >> reporter: but new video and others show the president's own connections. >> what's wrong with you? >> reporter: in 2013 trump appeared in one of emin's music videos. >> you're just another pretty face. i'm really tired of you. you're fired. >> reporter: and wished him happy birthday in a video posted on emin's instagram. >> emin, i can't believe you're turning 35. >> reporter: on cnn's new day, their lawyer said the e-mails don't add up. >> it's just fantasy world because the reality is if there was something important that mr. agalarov wanted to communicate to the trump campaign, i suspect

lobbying against the mcknitski act a u.s. legislation that punishes russians impolitic indicated in human right as absues in sanctions with asset seizures had been shopping a documentary aimed at under mining that piece of legislation and defended a firm that had its assets seize in connection with that. the british music promoter rob goldstone says he runs his own pr company we too entertainment. and he had also been a judge on miss usa beauty pathet. he also said his client is this pop star who goes by his first name amean and he worked with donald trump on the 2013 miss universe pageant here in moscow and boasts that he is the only person to have gotten trump to appear in a music video which happened in 2013. a year later trump appeared in a happy birthday video on his 35th birthday. now the father is the president of this company called croaka as group they own no bu restaurants in russian. they own shopping malls. and they're building stadiums for the upcoming fifa world cup. it is an eclectic mix but reveals something about the unique world that trump moved in that involves re

likely is it that u.s. have would have been an aware that potentially kremlin linked individuals were trying to connect with the son of the presidential nominee and secondly, if there was a phone conversation between donald trump jr. and this russian pop star, is it likely or possible that that somewhere was picked up and is recorded somewhere whether either in the u.s. or overseas? >> well, taking your second question first, anderson. yes, it's certainly possible that the intelligence community may have intercepted nsa may have intercepted such a call although being it would be involving a u.s. person, you know, there would have been, we get back to the old masking issue. was the name concealed. but that's certainly possible. it's also possible that the intelligence community may have had some indication that the russian government was attempting to arrange this meeting but from my reading on this, i think it would have come up sooner if the intelligence community had been aware of it, but if you sort of rewind back to when this all happened last year, what this looks very much

russian nationals. what can you tell us about some of the people involved. u.s. an eclectic cast of characters. anderson. you have a pop star, dad, azerbaijan billionaire real else state, the lawyer, was known to be lobbying against the act which is this u.s. legislation punishes russians in human rights abuses withsanction and was shopping around a documentary, and defended a firm that had assets seized in connection with that. now the british music producer, rod goldstone, says he runs his own pr company. we too entertainment. and he had also been a judge on miss usa, pageants. beauty pageants. he said the client is a pop star, emin agalarov and worked with donald trump toon the miss universe pageant in moscow. boasts he is the only person who has gotten trump to appear in a music video which happened in 2013. a year later, trump appeared in a happy birthday video. on his 35th birthday. now the father, he is the president of this company called, crocus group, they own nobu restaurants here in rush yeah. they own shopping malls. and they're building stadiums for the upcoming fifa w

america or american prosperity. >> and talking about china, you wrote recently about the u.s. pulling out of the transpacific partnership. and one of the things you said about the chinese is that essentially they've taken the temperature of donald trump and that for all the talk about him being a great negotiator and a tough guy, you say -- you've just been traveling throughout asia -- is that trump basically is nicknamed chump in china. >> that's my nickname for him. if you look at how bebe manipulated him in israel, how putin just manipulated him at the g20, how the chinese have played him, he's a chump. the reason he's a chump is because he doesn't do his homework. he hasn't thought things through. let's look at tpp, the transpacific partnership. what was that? that was a 12-nation free trade zone that was created by the united states based on our values and our interests. it had more protections for workers and environment. it was negotiated by obama, a liberal, than any trade agreement in history. it was what hillary clinton said about it, the gold standard of trade agreements wh

about it until he was flying back from the u.s. to germany when "the new york times" posted. but she said look, there's no evidence of collusion here and tried to simply again say this is a democratic conspiracy, a hoax here. and it's standard practice and procedure to accept opposition research on your rival. but did not draw a distinction at all that the rival may have been a hostile actor. it may have been an adversary. i talked to several campaign practitioners who worked on both sides of the aisle. they say when you do receive something like this, you call the fbi. the white house presented it as business as usual. but the white house thought theyer trying to move beyond this. they wanted to talk about the forward relationship with vladamir putin going forward. they thought they had turned somewhat of a corner. that was a controversial meeting last friday, as well. but now they're stuck again with what happened during the campaign. i think it's important to point out, the reason this is different, this happened during the campaign two days after he clinched the nomination. and t

headline from today's face-to-face between the presidents of the united states and russia. the u.s. president came with baggage as far as russia is concerned. the russian president brought his own agenda. for a couple hours this morning, the g-20 summit became the g-2. two countries in the spotlight followed by two competing accounts of what transpired. more from jeff zeleny. >> reporter: the land shake tha world has been waiting for. donald trump and vladimir putin side by side for the first time in hamburg. >> we've had some very, very good talks. we're going to have a talk now. obviously, that'll continue. >> reporter: secretary of state rex tillerson, the only other u.s. official inside the meeting, later told reporters that president trump opened the session by raising the elephant in the room. russian interference in the 2016 election. >> the president pressed president putin on more than one occasion regarding russian involvement. president putin denied such involvement. as i think he has in the past. >> reporter: while putin denied involvement, tillerson said the two leader

mobile. >>> with the president still casting doubt on the u.s. intelligence committee going into his meeting with vladimir putin, we have breaking news about what u.s. intelligence has uncovered now. namely, still more russian spy. cnn's pamela brown has the latest on that and joins us once again tonight. pamela, what can you tell us? >> we've learned that russian spice are ramping up their intelligence gathering efforts in the united states according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they've noticed an increase since the election. so the russians' efforts have not been slowed by the intense focus of the intelligence community's assessment that russia meddled in a the u.s. election. and since the election, john, u.s. authorities have detected an uptick in suspected russian intelligence officers entering the united states under the guise of other business. officials say they have been trying to replenish their ranks since the u.s. dispelled russian diplomats suspected of spying, if you'll recall last december. and in some cases russian spies have tried to gain

decisively include russian meddling in the u.s. election as part of it. that's the reality tonight in hamburg, germany, on the eve of president trump's first formal meeting with vladimir putin at the g-20 summit. it takes place with protesters marching, allies seeking reassurance, north korea testing missiles, china looking to fill the vacuum and so much more including now the breaking news. cnn has learned that even with all the attention, the reporting, the hearings, the fbi probe, intelligence officials are concerned that russian has accelerated its spying given the intelligence community which the president slighted today even more to do. more on putin, the summit, the president's resistance, all of it tonight. first, though, cnn justice correspondent pamela brown on the stepped up spying. pamela, what have you learned? >> we learned, john, russian spies are ramping up their intelligence-gathering efforts in the united states, this is according to current and former u.s. intelligence officials who say they noticed this increase since the election. so it appears, john, the russians