Sen. Rand Paul Delivered Letter from Trump to Putin; New Details in Leaked Document on Trump/Putin Summit.
BLITZER: Republican Senator Rand Paul makes a diplomatic delivery. Senator Paul revealed today that he delivered a letter to the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, from President Trump while Paul has been visiting Russia this week. He tweeted this, quote, "I was honored to deliver a letter from President Trump to President Vladimir Putin's administration. It emphasized the importance of further engagement in various areas." We just heard from the White House a few moments ago. The press secretary, assistant press secretary, describing it as a letter of introduction requested by the Senator in hopes of meeting with Vladimir Putin. But as far as we know, no meeting has taken place between the Senator and the Russian leader. Let's bring in our chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward. Clarissa, what more do we know about how all of this came about and how the Kremlin has responded.</s>CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So what we know so far is that the three specific issues that the letter pertained to were counterterrorism, improving counterterrorism between Russia and the U.S., improving legislative dialogue, and also resuming cultural exchanges. These are seemingly, Wolf, very anodyne topics, the exact sort of thing you'd expect to see the president of the U.S. and the president of Russia discussing as they go about trying to repair the very damaged relationship. What makes this, however, very unusual and quite striking is the method of the delivery of the letter. There are diplomatic protocols. There's a chain that one goes through. We have a thing called the State Department. And traditionally, a letter from the U.S. president to the Russian president would go through that typical diplomatic chain or protocol. So very unusual to see President Trump giving this letter to the Senator to hand deliver to Russian lawmakers, who then reportedly passed it on to the Kremlin. We gather, from a Russian news agency, that the Kremlin has the letter but that it has not yet been reviewed by President Putin himself. One can only assume, Wolf, that he will be reading it soon. But again, a very untraditional mechanism for delivering this letter, opening up the possibility, people are saying, of is this some kind of a back channel. Really too early to draw any conclusions about that, Wolf. But given that the topic of the letter, the specific things that are discussed, seem so generic, it seems an unusual way of handing over this letter to the president of Russia.</s>BLITZER: Yes. When it comes to direct dialogue between the U.S. and Russia, Senator Paul and President Trump, they're on the same page. They want to have these kinds of exchanges. They're clearly working together in that area. As you know, Clarissa, there's a leaked document now that sheds more light on that private meeting that President Trump had with President Putin in Helsinki. According to "Politico," the memo shows that Putin lobbied the president on various issues, including arms control and prohibiting weapons in space. So what more are you hearing about all of this?</s>WARD: All of this is coming from a report from "Politico." CNN has not yet been able to independently verify the report. But from what we gather, there's, again, three main topics that President Putin reportedly drilled down on with President Trump during that two-hour meeting. As you have said, many times before, that two- hour meeting, that private meeting has been the source of endless speculation. A lot of mystery surrounding it. A lot of questions of what was discussed. According to this document, which was written in Russian, in Cyrillic, much of it leaves Putin's agenda for this meeting really focused of issues of arms control, with three specific topics, the five-year extension of the New START Treaty. This essentially dealing with limiting nuclear armaments for both sides, both the Russians and the U.S. Commitment to reaffirm the INF treaty. This deals with intermediate ranges, which both sides have accused each other of violating that treaty. And, as you mentioned, also a possible ban on placing weapons in space. Again, what is striking about this, Wolf, is that these are very typical topics to be discussed between the U.S. president, between the Russian president. But we have heard the Russian foreign ministry coming out with a blistering critique of "Politico" saying, "It seems about once a month there's a leak from the American side. What kind of interference in the American elections from Russia can there be if, in the United States, even the content of presidential talks cannot be kept secret." Some harsh words there -- Wolf?</s>BLITZER: Very interesting, indeed. Clarissa Ward, in London, thanks very much. Other news, any minute now, Republican Congressman Chris Collins will be in a New York federal courtroom just hours after being arrested and charged with insider trading. We'll go there live. Plus, the scene gets testy in the trial of president's former campaign chairman. Why teams went back and forth over the star witness's extramarital affair.