FBI Raids Home Of Trump's Former Campaign Chairman
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. We begin with breaking news right now, the FBI conducting a surprise raid at the home of President Trump's former campaign chairman. It's part of the special counsel's investigation of Russian meddling in the election. The raid we are told came one day after Paul Manafort met with the Senate Intelligence Committee. Let's get all of the details on this. Let's go live now to CNN's Jessica Schneider. Also with me here is CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan. Jessica, first to you. What exactly do we know right now about this?</s>JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, Paul Manafort's spokesman in fact confirming that raid saying that Manafort has, quote, "consistently cooperated with law enforcement and other serious inquiries." But it does raise the question why this raid if he has in fact been cooperating. Now there are several ongoing investigations both on the congressional side and of course, by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The time line of this raid is notable since we know that it happened at the end of July. "The Washington Post" reporting on July 26th. One day after Paul Manafort met with the Senate Intelligence Committee behind closed doors. And in fact, the same day that Paul Manafort was initially scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee. That hearing was postponed after Chairman Chuck Grassley agreed not to issue a subpoena in exchange for Manafort agreeing to hand over documents. You know, but we do know the special counsel investigation, it is going full steam ahead. In recent weeks, it's been of particular significance of Manafort's presence inside that July 2016 meeting at Trump Tower that was arranged by Donald Trump Jr. involved that Russian lawyer. And it initially came, of course, with the promise that it would reveal damaging information about Hillary Clinton. So, Kate, we know that federal agents raided Manafort's Alexandria, Virginia home. Interestingly, a source is now telling our Evan Perez that this is somewhat of an unusual move in a case like this where the investigation has been ongoing already for several months and in a case where Paul Manafort has, in fact, been handing over documents already presumably to the special counsel. We do know to those congressional committees. So, yes, that raid happening at the end of July -- Kate.</s>BOLDUAN: Yes, a surprise break to Paul Manafort and a surprise move when you think that everyone thought that Paul Manafort was cooperating. Jessica, thank you so much. Paul, on the most basic level, how do you get the FBI knocking at your door pre-dawn with a search warrant?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, it's an indication of a complete lack of trust and a heavy suspicion with respect to the person who is being raided. There are three ways to get information that prosecutors use. One is voluntary cooperation. Your attorney says, OK, you want the documents, we'll produce them. He had a lawyer who was allegedly voluntarily cooperating. The second way is a subpoena is issued. Lawyers love subpoenas because they can go into court and contest the subpoena. Say it's overly broad, they don't have the right to this. The third way, predawn rate by the FBI into your house. Now that's done when system one and two has failed and the FBI feels that they have been deceived. And they're not being -- they're not getting the information that they want through the more conventional method. This is a suspicion of criminality. It may be by Manafort, maybe by somebody else, and a fear by the FBI that there was information that would be destroyed unless produced forcibly by a raid.</s>BOLDUAN: We, of course, at this moment, don't know what they were looking for. We don't know what they took with them in the raid. But generally speaking, is this a good thing for Paul Manafort?</s>CALLAN: It's a bad thing for Paul Manafort. It puts him dead center of the Mueller investigation and really, it's not surprising given his connections to Russia, Ukraine, and his simple role in the early stages of the Trump campaign.</s>BOLDUAN: Fascinating. A lot more to learn on this one, Paul. Thanks for laying it out. I really appreciate it. Great to see you, Jessica. Thank you so much. Also, following this, tough talking, tough tweeting, a day after President Trump warned of fire and fury if North Korea continues to threaten the United States. He sends out a statement again on Twitter about the state of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Here is the tweet, "My first order as president was to renovate and modernize our nuclear arsenal. It is now far stronger and more powerful than ever. Hopefully, we will never have to use this power, but there will never be a time that we are not the most powerful nation in the world." But still, both here in the U.S. and abroad, folks are reeling from the president's choice of words towards Pyongyang. But today, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson says his boss is just speaking a language Kim Jong-un can understand.</s>REX TILLERSON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think Americans should sleep well at night. I have no concerns about this particular rhetoric over the last few days. I think the president again as commander-in-chief, he felt it necessary to issue a very strong statement directly to North Korea. But I think what the president was just reaffirming is the United States has the capability to fully defend itself from any attack and defend our allies and we will do so. So, the American people should sleep well at night.</s>BOLDUAN: With me now, chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, for much more on this. So, Jim, where exactly do things stand right now? You have the president's tweets, the president's statement, and then what we heard from Rex Tillerson this morning.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rex Tillerson is either walking back the president's comments or that this is part of a good cop bad cop, the secretary of state speaking in somewhat more reasonable terms or less bombastic terms and the president making a statement as the secretary of state said there in terms that Kim Jong-Un would understand. But the thing is, you have walked back from other spheres as well. South Korea, for instance, the U.S. ally in the region, making a point of saying today through their spokesperson in the Foreign Ministry that listen, there is not a crisis. There's not an impending calamity on the peninsula here. So that message perhaps to temper the president's message there because, of course, we saw the reaction. Not just from media or from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, John McCain included, but also from the North Koreans as well. Because you had what appeared to be a threat from North Korea following the president's statement saying that it will bring nuclear war to the continental U.S., et cetera. So, from a rhetorical standpoint, certainly an escalation following the president's remarks.</s>BOLDUAN: Can I also ask you, Jim, about the president's tweet about the nuclear arsenal? What exactly do we know about any changes that have been made since he took office in efforts to modernize the nuclear arsenal?</s>SCIUTTO: Well, the president's claim in his tweet that his first order was to modernize and that the arsenal is now modernized in the six months since he has been in office is frankly misleading, for one, the president did order a review, but that review is still under way. In fact, President Obama last year ordered a modernization at the cost of which had been estimated up to a trillion dollars, some of which money that hasn't been allocated yet. Second of all, that's something that's going to take many years. So, to claim that he ordered it himself and that it's complete and the U.S. nuclear forces are suddenly more modern than they have even been is -- it's frankly misleading. It's a long process. It started before the Trump administration and it's certainly not complete. It is significant, though, because this is talking about a lot of money here. It's talking about modernization. But it's also part of a debate, Kate, because a lot of these are treaty obligations, right? You have treaty obligations that hold down capabilities of your nuclear forces. You can't just snap your fingers and make this happen. It's a very long and difficult process.</s>BOLDUAN: You can't sum it up in 140 characters. That's for sure.</s>SCIUTTO: No. No.</s>BOLDUAN: Great to see you, Jim. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. So, is the U.S. military preparing any kind of response to this crisis in the face of the tweets and the statements and the potential walk backs? Let's find out. CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is looking into all of this for us. So, Barbara, is the Pentagon saying anything about the president's remarks quite yet? Any changes planned?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Not quite yet, Kate. We can always wind up hearing from the secretary of defense later in the day. He is traveling today. He could wind up making a statement. We don't know. Right now, we are told there is no plan for additional forces to go to the region. That also could change at some point. As far as it stands right now, aircraft and ships and troops remaining on their standard schedules. Two things to note, however, the U.S. does keep those bomber aircraft in Guam. That's why Kim Jong-un got so upset and made that threat against Guam. They flew earlier this week in a show of force, unarmed, of course. They could fly again to demonstrate U.S. military capability in the region. There is a long-scheduled exercise later this month in South Korea with South Korean forces. That is likely to bring a significant number of additional U.S. troops to the area for that exercise. Everyone will be watching to see how the North Koreans react to that. Expect to see a lot of rhetoric, but everybody insisting a long- standing routine scheduled exercise.</s>BOLDUAN: A routine exercise at a time when the tensions could not be higher. Great to see you, Barbara. Thanks so much. We will keep close to Barbara. See if we hear anything from the Pentagon. How are they reacting today to this? Coming up next, we will talk about the president's red line. The red line he drew and has North Korea crossed it and how Kim Jong-un is likely to react now. Plus, a blast from the past, a "Meet The Press" interview from the '90s. Citizen Trump talking about the North Korean threat then and what he would do about it. It has a lot of folks talking today. And more drama inside the west wing, this time a conservative editorial board targeting Steve Bannon. Hear why.