Mueller Says Trump Jr. and Manafort Can Testify; Eighth Person in Trump Jr. Meeting; Calls for Revoking Kushner's Security Clearance.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Following breaking news. The Senate Judiciary Committee's ranking member, the top Democrat, Dianne Feinstein, now says the Special Counsel Robert Mueller has given the committee the all-clear to go ahead and interview Donald Trump Jr. and Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman, in a public session. It comes as we learn more about the eighth person who attended last year's meeting with Donald Trump Jr. and a Russian attorney. For all the latest developments, let's bring in our senior congressional reporter Manu Raju and our CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown. Manu, tell us a little bit more about Senator Feinstein, what she had to say about the Judiciary Committee's Russia investigation.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Yes, a significant development here, Wolf. The Senate Judiciary Committee now getting the green light from Bob Mueller's office to go ahead and interview in a public session Paul Manafort, the former campaign chairman to Donald Trump, as well as Donald Trump Jr., in light of that meeting that he had last year with Russians after he was told that he could get dirt on the Clinton campaign. Now, this is a significant development because last week both Senator Dianne Feinstein, Senator Chuck Grassley had reached out to Bob Mueller's office to make sure that they would not conflict with his own investigation into Russia meddling. And what they got back from Bob Mueller's office is that it's not a problem. They can go forward with their own public hearings as long as they have really no issue there. This is according to Senator Dianne Feinstein, who I just talked to moments ago. Now, also, Wolf, another significant development. I talked to the Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr. I asked him specifically if he wants to learn more about what happened at that Trump Tower meeting. And he gave his most extensive comment to date about the fact that he does. And also wants to hear from those as well. Take a listen to Richard Burr.</s>RAJU: Do you also feel like you understand everything about what happened in that Trump Tower meeting at this point?</s>SEN. RICHARD BURR (R), CHAIRMAN, INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: No, absolutely not. I think that there's a lot to learn from that. And we've reached out to the appropriate people and asked them to provide information for us and to testify possibly publicly. But it's too early in that to draw any conclusions. But I, you know, our job is to put the facts on the table and follow wherever it goes.</s>RAJU: Do you want Don Jr. in public - do you want that - Don Jr. to -</s>BURR: I think you've got to ask Don Jr. to come in. Whether that's public or whether it's private or how you proceed and at what pace still yet to be determined by information that we learn between now and the time we make that request.</s>RAJU: Has he been cooperative, Don Jr.?</s>BURR: Oh, I think everybody in this administration has been cooperative up to this point, yes. Yes.</s>RAJU: Thank you, sir.</s>RAJU: So two significant developments there, Wolf. Two separate committees. The Intelligence Committee ready to move forward with hearings, either publically or privately, including with Don Jr. And now the Senate Judiciary Committee can move forward with that possible public testimony. The question is whether or not both Donald Trump Jr. and Manafort agree or whether they'll be hit with any subpoenas if they don't, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: What about Jared Kushner? He was also at that meeting. He's a senior adviser to the president right now, the president's son-in-law. Is he going to be called to testify as well?</s>RAJU: Well, certainly before the Senate Intelligence Committee there have been negotiations going back and forth about bringing him forward and then ask for records in light of that meeting. The Senate Intelligence Committee has done that. The question is, when does Jared Kushner come? We're not sure yet. One other thing before the Senate Intelligence Committee today, Wolf, former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough is meeting behind closed doors as part of that Russia meddling investigation. But we'll see when some of those big Trump associate, including Jared Kushner, also agree to come possibly behind closed doors as well, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Manu, stand by. Pamela's with us as well. Pamela, the eighth person in the meeting a year ago, June of last year, at Trump Tower with Donald Trump Jr. has now been identified. You broke the story. You reported the name first. What can you tell us about this eighth person at the meeting?</s>PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There's been so much mystery surrounding this eighth person, Wolf, and CNN has learned that he - the person who attended this June 2016 meeting with Donald Trump Jr. at Trump Tower is named Ike Kaveladze. His identity was confirmed by his attorney, Scott Balber. And Kaveladze is a senior vice president at Crocus Group, the real estate development company run by Russian Azerbaijani oligarch Aras Agalarov, according to his LinkedIn. Now, his personal web site says, quote, he holds responsibility for multiple elements of the company's Russian development projects. So he has multiple projects in Russia. He studied at the Moscow Academy of Finance and also got an MBA from the University of New Haven in Connecticut according to his web site. Now, Kaveladze is a U.S. citizen according to his attorney and he has worked for the Agalarov's business since 2004, which means he was with the company when it partnered with the Trump Organization to pull off the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant in Moscow. In fact, it appears, Wolf, that he is seen in video from 2013 exclusively obtained by CNN with the Agalarov family and with now President Trump. So he is seen in this video that we obtained exclusively that we presented last week. So he apparently goes way back with the Agalarovs. The special council investigators, they have reached out to his attorney seeking information from Kaveladze as part of this Russia probe. And his attorney says that he is fully cooperating, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, fully cooperating. Let's see if he shows up and testifies as well. He is a U.S. citizen. Presumably he's not going to have much choice, especially if he's subpoenaed. All right, Pamela, thank you very much. Manu, thanks to you as well. Good reporting on both of your parts. Let's discuss all of this and more with our panel. I'm joined by our chief political analyst Gloria Borger, CNN politics reporter, editor at large, Chris Cillizza, and Shannon Pettypiece. She is the White House reporter for "Bloomberg News." You know, Gloria, this meeting, take eight people now in the meeting, a translator from Russia. This was a - this was a big deal, this meeting.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it was a big deal and the Agalarovs are, that family, really looms large in all of this. They're not an unknown quantity to the Trump family. Donald Trump Jr. has a relationship with the patriarch of this family. They did the Miss Universe Pageant together. Don Jr. has a relationship with Emin, the son. And I think that - and clearly they had somebody in there representing them in this meeting. Rob Goldstone is the publicist for the son. And so the Agalarov family is a family that I'm sure that the special counsel, as well as the congressional committees, are going to be looking to, particularly given Don Jr.'s e-mail in which Rob Goldstone said, you know, we have the stuff to deliver the connection. And - between Hillary Clinton and Russia and we're going to give that to you. And Don Jr., of course, responded, "love it." So I think that this is just, you know, another link in the chain here to this family, and this family between - and to the Trump family.</s>BLITZER: How do you see these late developments? We're learning a lot more about a meeting that initially was supposed to be about adoptions and all of a sudden it's a lot more than that.</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: And was dismissed as a 20- minute nothing burger, my words, not Don Jr.'s but essentially, nothing happened. I agree with everything that Gloria said. I'll add that the fact that - the Russian lawyer was someone the Agalarovs sort of deputized to represent this information. That they had another representative in the room, which we now know the identity of - although we did know that that - we knew there were eight people in there - speaks to the fact that they took whatever information was being passed - or the meeting itself quite seriously. This was not a, hey, let's go and say hi to Don Jr. and Paul Manafort and Jared Kushner. This was something that they clearly were invested in. In terms of raw people attending it, and wanted to make sure that that information was conveyed in a way that was appropriate with what they believed it to be. So, again, dismissing this given the number of people and the "who" is involved, it's just getting harder and harder to do (ph).</s>SHANNON PETTYPIECE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "BLOOMBERG NEWS": I also think it seems unlikely to this characterization that, oh, after a few minutes, Kushner and Manafort lost interest and got up and walked out. So now it's sort of like a large, formal meeting. There are eight people in the room and you're - you just stand up in the middle of it and walk out. You know, which is one more thing that just doesn't seem believable. But, of course, nothing about what happened in this meeting seems believable at this point since this story has changed, I don't know, five times now, and we keep getting more information about who was there.</s>BLITZER: Well, the big problem, Shannon, that the president's son-in- law, Jared Kushner has is, he didn't disclose this meeting with these Russians on his security clearance questionnaire. Later he updated it and he disclosed it once they saw the black and white of the e-mail which described what this meeting was all about, namely getting dirt about Hillary Clinton, opposition research, from these Russians.</s>PETTYPIECE: Right, so why didn't he disclose it if -</s>BLITZER: Why didn't he?</s>PETTYPIECE: This wasn't a back of the hand - you know, a last-minute type of meeting. This was a large meeting. It should have been on his calendar. Why didn't he disclose it? And we do now know that he, on the security clearance forms, they disclosed more than 100 other meetings. I've been asking and trying to find out, what are those other meetings? That's a question I want to know. So you had 100 other meetings. What were they? What else haven't they told us about their time during the campaign?</s>BLITZER: Does he have a problem right now with security clearance, Jared Kushner?</s>BORGER: Well - well, he dos, only in the sense that Democrats are demanding that his interim clearance be revoked. But, you know, in the end, this moves up the food chain and it's really up to the president to decide who he wants around him and who should get security clearance or not. So I doubt that Donald Trump would actually say, well, I don't think Jared Kushner should have security clearance. I mean, everybody, the FBI does its investigation, but the president can decide what he wants to do.</s>BLITZER: And very quickly, do you think that Jared Kushner would remember a meeting with eight people, including a Russian translator, a Russian lawyer. That's something you probably would remember.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes. Yes. I mean we were led to believe at the start of this that this was essentially the equivalent of passing in the hall, hey, we all know each other. It clearly was more than that. And to Shannon's point, the probably here is that it wasn't initially disclosed, both the meeting and the nature of the meeting, which as we've come to find out, you know, I haven't sat in a meeting with eight people in quite some time. I mean, you know, this is a - this takes organization. This takes time. This takes investment. You have two - three of the top officials in the Trump campaign there. It's hard to believe that this was just a, well, we figured out, it was kind of about adoptions and then nothing. They're going to have to have a better explanation than that.</s>PETTYPIECE: Well, I think there's definitely concern in the White House about Kushner among those close to the White House.</s>BLITZER: About his security clearances.</s>PETTYPIECE: About his fate in the White -</s>BLITZER: If he doesn't have security clearances, he can't do his job.</s>PETTYPIECE: Yes, about his role or fate in that White House in general. There's definitely concern among those close to Trump about Kushner.</s>CILLIZZA: And it's important to note too, Wolf, just to close a loop. It's basically saying, we should get rid of Jared Kushner's security clearance means you should fire Jared. I mean Jared Kushner can't have that job -</s>BLITZER: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: You can't say, hey, Jared, could you step out? Hey, Jared, could you step out, every two seconds, right?: I mean that job, the nature of the job he has, requires it.</s>BLITZER: Right.</s>CILLIZZA: So it's one or the other.</s>BLITZER: Can't negotiate - can't negotiate Middle East peace without having security clearance.</s>CILLIZZA: No. Right. It would be tough.</s>BLITZER: That would be very - all right, guys -</s>BORGER: All right, but let's see what the president does.</s>PETTYPIECE: Right.</s>BLITZER: We'll see what the -</s>PETTYPIECE: You are right, he does have the decision at the end of the day.</s>BORGER: It's up to the president.</s>BLITZER: Gloria, Chris, Shannon, guys, thanks very much.</s>CILLIZZA: Thank you.</s>BLITZER: The promise to repeal and replace Obamacare served certainly as a major pillar of President Trump's winning campaign. So what is the bills collapse now reveal about the party's future, the party's ability to push ahead with an agenda?