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Trump's Son Admits Meeting with Kremlin-Linked Lawyer; Exclusive Report on Qatar Agreement; Report: Some Comey Memos Contained Classified Info. Trump Accuses Comey of Leaking Classified Information; Iraq Announces Mosul Liberated from ISIS. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 10, 2017 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:30:00] JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I also want to make something clear. The only reason why we know that, or we believe that the information was useless, was Donald Trump Jr's words. This is a -- Donald Trump Jr has changed his story twice within 48 hours. So we do not know whether the information was actually useless or whether it was related to Russia's later attempts or later success in hacking the DNC or John Podesta's e-mail. We need to not take the Donald Trump Jr story as true only because it's changed so many times in such a short period of time.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITIAL ANALYST: I have to ask, why were all of these people in the transition and so high up. And, again, this wasn't the transition. Still involved in the campaign.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Meeting with people they didn't know? It's sort of hard for me to say that -- you know, to believe that I was not told her name prior to the meeting. So somebody arranges a meeting. You're very busy. Running a president's campaign. You are the chairman of the campaign, Paul Manafort. You are the president's -- or the candidate's son-in-law. And son. And you were suddenly meeting with people you don't know? And why would you -- why would you do that? Unless you had a real reason to believe that the meeting was going to be --

(CROSSTALK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Well, someone, an intermediary told them

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- they would get dirt on Hillary Clinton.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And remember, the political content of this meeting in June of last year, right after he basically sewed up the nomination.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I was going to say, you have to look at the timing of this. He just secured enough delegates to be the nominee but it's before the convention. Again, we don't know the content of this meeting, again, what everything was discussed, but we do know what happened afterwards. We know Donald Trump almost immediately thereafter was tweeting about getting the 30,000 e-mails of Hillary Clinton. We know it was after this meeting in July when Donald Trump held that press conference where he invited the Russians to come in and hack Hillary Clinton's e-mail so that those 30,000 missing e-mails could be exposed. So we do know certain things around this. Again, we don't know the -

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: -- but we know the timeline.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And, look, Juliette said -- it is true -- we only have one side of the story, and we only have Donald Trump Jr's public statements. Unfortunately, for him, he's going to have to go, very likely, almost definitely, going to have to go under oath in some way, shape or form, whether before a congressional committee or special council.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: And don't forget, Jared Kushner, after they won the election, was meeting with another Russian, Sergey Gorkov, who, apparently, I was told, he didn't know who he was meeting with either. There are all of the meetings with people who were acquaintances of acquaintances that just happened to be Russians? I think we need a little more of an explanation.

BLITZER: Certainly do.

All right, guys, everybody, thanks very much, Juliette, Dana, Gloria and David.

Still to come, a CNN exclusive on an agreement reached between Qatar and its neighbors that just may help explain the widening political instability in the region. We have new information. We'll share it with you when we come back.

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[13:35:08] BLITZER: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson just arrived in Kuwait to help mediate the dispute involving Qatar, one of America's close allies in the Middle East. Qatar has been isolated diplomatically over allegations by its neighbors that it supports and funds various terror groups.

CNN has exclusively obtained copies of secret agreements among gulf nations that may explain how the nations in that part of the world got to where they are right now.

Let's bring in our chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, with exclusive information for us.

Jim, tell our viewers what you've learned.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Thank you very much.

I have the agreement here, some of which are handwritten. CNN has learned that Qatar made a series of secret agreements with its gulf neighbors in 2013 and 2014 barring support for opposition and hostile groups in those nations as well as in Egypt and Yemen. This according to the copies of these agreements obtained exclusively by CNN.

Now, the existence of these agreements has been known but both the contents and the documents themselves were kept secret due to the sensitivity of the issues involved and the fact that they were agreed in private by heads of state.

Now, the agreements you're seeing, the first of which was handwritten, signed by the king of Saudi Arabia, the emir of Qatar and the emir of Kuwait, were obtained by CNN from a source from the region with access to the documents. A second agreement, dated in 2014, headlined, "top secret," adds the king of Bahrain, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and the prime minister of the UAE.

Now the gulf countries have accused Qatar of not complying with the two agreements, which helps explain what sparked the worst diplomatic crisis in the Middle East, really in decades. Abiding by the agreements was among six principals, the golf nations, set as requirements to improve relations with Qatar. In a statement released last week, in the statement to CNN, Qatar accused Saudi Arabia and UAE of breaking the spirit of the agreement and indulging in, quote, "an unprovoked attack on Qatar's sovereignty."

BLITZER: The secretary of state of the U.S., Rex Tillerson, in Kuwait, in the region, would like to mediate this and end this dispute. Qatar has a U.S. air base and a ground facility there. A lot of U.S. troops are in Qatar. And this is a very dangerous situation from the U.S. perspective as well. Because the U.S. has close alliances with the Saudis and Bahrainis and the Emiratis.

SCIUTTO: Absolutely. Absolutely. And the president himself got in the middle of this, really. Remember the tweets he sent after his trip to Saudi Arabia, siding, in effect in those tweets, with the other gulf countries against Qatar, and accusing them as much, in the tweets, of supporting terrorism and other things.

And what we see in these agreement here, again, first, the handwritten one, that among three emirs, and then, in 2014, another one, somewhat more formal, backed by agreement by foreign ministers, is commitments among all the nations, not singling Qatar out, but among all nations to do things, like not support the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, not support what are called deviant groups -- to some, that is a code word for terrorism in the region -- and not to support other opposition groups in the region.

BLITZER: And one of the demands they made here in this document -- I've gone through it earlier today, thanks to you and your team. One of the current demands is, basically, Qatar shuts down "al Jazeera?"

SCIUTTO: That's the other thing. It's referred to in the first agreement, though not named, as antagonistic media. The leader of some of these other gulf countries, and "al Jazeera" based in Qatar, they accuse it of sort of drumming up support for opposition groups, for instance, in Bahrain, but also, at worse, drumming up some support for terrorist groups. That's what they accuse them of. And one of their demands, recently, the emphasis, is to shut that station down. Of course, a whole host of issues there, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, and so on. But these gulf nations accuse that station, backed by the Qatar government, of, in effect, supporting these opposition groups.

BLITZER: Very vocal in that condemnation about "al Jazeera." The gulf nations, the Saudis, the Emiratis, the Bahrainis and the Egyptians as well --

SCIUTTO: That's right.

BLITZER: -- are very angry at "al Jazeera."

SCIUTTO: And as you know -- as you know, now Rex Tillerson is in the region hoping to bring those partners were back together. As you said, the U.S. has close relationships with all of them.

BLITZER: Yes. We heard some different words coming from Rex Tillerson, a week or two ago, and the president --

SCIUTTO: Absolutely.

BLITZER: -- who was quickly condemning the Qataris. And the secretary of state wants to mediate and come up with a solution.

SCIUTTO: Exactly. As often happens, those presidential tweets can have a different message from some of the senior advisors.

[13:39:44] BLITZER: Wouldn't be the first time.

Thanks very much.

Good reporting from Jim Sciutto, as usual.

Up next, a new report is giving new insight into former FBI Director James Comey's private memos regarding his conversations with President Trump. The report claims half of them contain some classified information. Details, right after the break.

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BLITZER: A new report is providing details about the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote about his meetings and calls with President Trump. "The Hill" is citing officials familiar with the documents as saying more than half of them contain classified information.

Our justice correspondent, Jessica Schneider, is with us now.

Jessica, what more are we learning?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, "The Hill" is reporting the fired FBI director wrote seven memos detailing his nine conversations with President Trump. "The Hill" sources say that four of those memos had markings to make clear that they contained information classified at the secret or the confidential level. But here's the key. There is no indication that there was any classified information in the one memo that the fired FBI Director James Comey gave to his law professor friend to leak to the press. In fact, James Comey testified June 8th he believed it to be a personal document that contained his own recollection.

Here's how James Comey distinguished it when questioned by Senator Roy Blunt back on June 8th.

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SEN. ROY BLUNT, (R), MISSOURI: You didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document? You consider it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: Correct.

BLUNT: Through a friend?

COMEY: I understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president. As a private citizen, I felt free to share that. Thought it very important to get it out.

BLUNT: So were all of your memos that you recorded, on classified or other documents, memos that might be yours as a private citizen?

COMEY: I'm sorry. I'm not following the question.

BLUNT: Well, I think you said you would use classified -- classified --

(CROSSTALK)

COMEY: Oh, yes. Not the classified documents. Unclassified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:45:06] SCHNEIDER: Important to note the FBI does forbid any agent from releasing classified information. It is the official policy of the bureau.

Again, while "The Hill" reports that several of Comey's memos contained classified information, James Comey -- you saw it there -- continued to stress, Wolf, that the memo he gave to his law professor friend that eventually got out to the press did not campaign classified information.

BLITZER: Tell us what the president, President Trump, is tweeting about this?

SCHNEIDER: He did tweet about it this morning. In fact, the president taking to Twitter, as he often does when it concerns James Comey, in particular. The president tweeting this, saying, "James Comey leaked classified information to the media. That is so illegal."

Also, top adviser, Kellyanne Conway, was out this morning talking about it as well, saying that Comey did release that information, saying it was classified. But, yet, again, Wolf, James Comey made it clear on June 8th, that, no, that memo released did not have classified information, despite the fact that "The Hill" is reporting that four other of his memos did contain classified information.

BLITZER: And the classified information from the other memos were not leaked to his law professor friend. Only one memo. And Comey made it clear that --

SCHNEIDER: Exactly.

BLITZER: -- he did not believe there was classified information in that memo?

SCHNEIDER: That's right.

BLITZER: That eventually made its way to "The New York Times."

SCHNEIDER: Yes.

BLITZER: Thanks very much. Jessica Schneider reporting for us.

Coming up, after months of devastating battles, Iraqi troops have retaken the city of Mosul. What this victory means and what's next for the war-torn city and that nation, when we come back.

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BLITZER: Iraqi troops have now retaken the city of Mosul from ISIS in Iraq. The Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al Abadi made the announcement a little while saying the city is completely liberated from the terror group. This is a significant and a symbolic win. Mosul is Iraq's second-largest city. It's considered one of the main entry points for foreign fighters. Back in 2014, three years ago, the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, announced the creation of a caliphate at the al Nuri mosque in Mosul. The city later became one of the terror group's self-proclaimed capitols. A significant development, the victory in Mosul, even though it took three years, represents a collective effort between Iraqi forces, Kurdish Peshmerga fights and coalition forces.

U.S. Lieutenant General Stephen J. Townsend, is the commanding general of the combined joint task force, Operation Inherent Resolve. He's joining us live from Baghdad.

General, thanks so much for joining us.

Are the Iraqis, do you believe, fully capable of holding that tentative peace that has now emerged in Mosul?

GEN. STEPHEN J. TOWNSEND, COMMANDER, JOINT TASK FORCE OPERATION INHERENT RESOLVE: Thanks, Wolf. Well, first of all, I think the global coalition that fights ISIS here would like to congratulate Prime Minister Abadi and all the Iraqi security forces on their historic victory against an evil enemy, while also making extraordinary efforts to safeguard civilian lives.

To answer your question, I do believe the Iraqi security forces have what it takes to hold Mosul. They've been holding the east side of Mosul since it was liberated in January. And they have a plan to hold the entire city, even as they prosecute operations against ISIS elsewhere in Iraq.

[13:50:25] BLITZER: What do they need to do now, specifically, and what will the U.S. involvement be to prevent ISIS from returning to Iraq's second-largest city?

TOWNSEND: Well, they'll be responsible for the hold. And I think they have a good sight picture of what they need to do to do that. What they must do now is continue the attack.

What's next on the docket? It will be to finish operations in Nineveh Province (ph). There's not much left, but there's a bit of Nineveh Province (ph) that needs to be cleared, to include the major population of Talafer (ph), about 40 kilometers west of Mosul. Then there will be other areas that have to be cleared in Iraq, Alwija (ph) and western Anbar Province.

BLITZER: What will the U.S. role in all of this -- there are still thousands of U.S. troops in Iraq under your command. What is their mission right now?

TOWNSEND: Our mission hasn't changed. The defeat of ISIS in Mosul doesn't mean that ISIS is finished in Iraq. And there's still tough fighting ahead. We'll continue to perform our mission, which is to advise and assist the Iraqis. Before combat, we train -- helped train and equip them. Once they enter combat, we provide them with intelligence, precision fires and combat advice. We'll continue to do that. And we'll go where the fighting moves to next.

BLITZER: I remember three years ago when those ISIS terrorist forces moved into Mosul. The Iraqi military, including a lot of U.S. equipment, sophisticated armored personnel carriers, they ran away and left all that equipment behind. How do you know, General, that the Iraqi military won't do that again?

TOWNSEND: Well, the future is kind of hard to know. But I'd say this. This is a different Iraqi security force than three years ago, significantly different. You're right. Three years ago, ISIS took Mosul in a matter of days. Three years ago, the Iraqi security forces were fighting to hold their capitol of Baghdad. And today, they just concluded a major victory. 400 kilometers in their capitol, they fought for nine months without respite, and they took this second- largest city in Iraq back. This is a very different army than -- and security forces than existed three years ago. BLITZER: How much tension is there, General, between the Iraqi Shia,

the Sunni, and the Kurds right now? Because if you really want a united country, all of these elements of the Iraqi population need to work together. Are they?

TOWNSEND: Yeah. Well, the more than 40,000 Iraqi security forces operating today are comprised of Shia Iraqis, Sunni Iraqis, Kurds, Christians, Turkmen, and others. I'd say they're pretty united right now. There's a lot of celebrating going on, Iraq wide, right now that started yesterday.

So how long will that last? Well, I don't know. But you've hit on the critical point. That's the key point for the future, is this country has to pull together, this society has to pull together if they're going to prevent ISIS or the ISIS-next from returning.

BLITZER: What, if any, role will the U.S. military under your command have in trying to achieve in Raqqa, another ISIS caliphate capitol, if you will, that you achieved together, led by the Iraqi military, in Mosul?

TOWNSEND: Well, as of about an hour ago, what was job number-two for us, Raqqa, Syria, is now job number-one. We're prosecuting that fight there just like we did there, by, with and through our local partners. And we're performing the same kind of missions. The coalition as performed and the same kind of missions there. We'll take Raqqa, with our partners.

BLITZER: How long do you think it will take?

TOWNSEND: I don't know. I predicted that -- I'm not too good at these predictions. I predicted that it would take about six months to take Mosul. It took just shy of nine months -- a few days shy of nine months. I won't hazard a guess on how long it will take Raqqa.

[13:55:04] BLITZER: General Townsend, thank you so much for your service. Thank you so much for joining us.

TOWNSEND: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's go to our senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh. He recently was in Mosul. Spent a lot of time there. He's now in Irbil, not that far away.

What were the conditions like? Nick, what did you see?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This morning, the fighting was still intensely underway. We understand that, even as al Abadi was making that victory declaration, there were still pockets of ISIS still holding out.

The area we were in this morning was close to the river that marks the backend of ISIS territory inside the city of Mosul. And literally, Iraqi special forces, trained by the U.S., given U.S. weaponry, were fighting over the remaining dozen houses or so, which ISIS held down there. We saw ISIS -- we thought fighters - we were told they were fighters, by the Iraqi forces -- coming out, surrendering, handing themselves over. Clearly, disheveled, dusty, perhaps having run out of ammunition. We saw a U.S. air strike land close to our position, showing us with rubble. That's how intense and close the fighting is at this stage. They're literally, house to house, block to block, but they're down to 100 yards really between where we were and that river. The fighting, very intense, as I say. But possibly in the hours, days ahead, finally coming to an end there.

The old city absolutely in ruins. Like some sort of extraordinarily awful supernatural element has hit it. I've never seen anything like it. Nearly every car you see is torn up like a piece of paper and a pancake. The roads are all pushed to one side by bulldozers because the rubble blocked them. It's extraordinary to imagine anyone could possibly ever live there ever again. We saw civilians picking through the rubble. We saw a group headed to the al Nuri mosque, which ISIS blew up themselves, rather than see it fall into the hands of, quote, "their enemy." It used to be the most sacred monument for them in Mosul, where Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, their leader, announced the beginning of their so-called caliphate three years and 11 days to the moment when I'm talking ago.

But it is Mosul's task now to put itself together again for Iraq. You heard it from General Townsend talk about Talafer (ph) and Alwija (ph), the towns where ISIS has to be confronted still. But it is tonight, really, with the fall of the capitol ISIS had in Iraq, it's second-biggest city, many Iraqis have felt a weight lifted. The celebrations began last night. We waited a long time for the bureaucratic shuffling around Haider al Abadi's speech to play out. We've finally heard it now. I think perhaps many Iraqis are hoping they might be able to think about the future and the rebuilding rather than the violent bloodiness of ISIS's presence here.

Back to you -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Nick Paton Walsh on the scene for the scene for us, as he always is. Nick, thank you for your excellent reporting.

That's it for me. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is next.

For our viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Pamela Brown starts after a quick break.

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