Trump/Republicans Slam Clinton After Iranian Nuclear Scientist Executed
BALDWIN: Welcome back. This is CNN. A deadly case of alleged espionage. An Iranian nuclear scientist accused of spying for the United States has been executed. Now the blame game over his death is spilling into the race for the White House. Donald Trump and a number of his fellow Republicans are slamming Hillary Clinton, saying that, as secretary of state, she received messages mentioning him -- his name specifically -- on her personal e-mail server. Now Trump is blasting Hillary Clinton with this tweet, "Many people are saying that the Iranians killed a scientist because of Hillary Clinton's hacked e-mails." Jim Sciutto. Jim, we know his name popped up no those e-mails but as far as any connection between his death and Hillary Clinton, is there anything?</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Short answer is -- no. It just doesn't match up with the facts. Again, a few things. One, her public comments on this topic were very similar to the e-mail. There was nothing secret revealed, in effect, in those e-mails that wasn't already in the public sphere. That's one point. These e-mails were released through a FOIA request. They were not -- it was not redacted. It went through a process, which includes the intelligence agencies and State Department to go through and take out any sensitive information. And that reference was not taken out. If it was a sensitivity they would have done it, or if they made a mistake in that judgment, that went to the interagency. It was not Hillary Clinton's judgment. And finally, just for the record, this scientist was warned by U.S. officials before the returning to Iran that his life might be in danger. So there's some factual issues with the e-mails themselves, but also with the timeline of how this played out. On the other hand -- this is a fair point, Brooke. What it does get to is that in these e-mails, when you're a secretary of state, there are often sensitive topics that come up. And this is another sensitive topic. The causality that Trump tries to establish here just doesn't match up with the facts, but it does speak to the larger issue that you want these kinds of discussions to be protected in any way that they can.</s>BALDWIN: Right. Right. Iran's former president wrote a letter to President Obama about this ruling allowing families of people killed in attacks linked to Iran to collect damages from the country's several billion dollars in frozen assets. What do you know about that letter, what would the country be responsible for paying then this family that you are talking about?</s>SCIUTTO: Well, this is an issue, one, that it's really not going to go anywhere. Because Ahmadinejad is not the most likely voice to connection a channel between the U.S. and Iran, the level of discussion and communication now just two, three years ago we wouldn't even imagine it. Right? That one phone call you had in New York a couple years ago between the two presidents. Now they are speaking regularly, but not via Ahmadinejad. You can get a bit of a sense of that, because the White House response was really no response on this letter. They referred it to the State Department. I think that gives you a sense of how seriously they are taking that personal appeal.</s>BALDWIN: Jim Sciutto, thank you so much on both of those points.</s>SCIUTTO: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you. Just ahead, I want to show you a picture. See the man in the spotlight, mustache, red hat behind Hillary Clinton at her rally in Florida? That is the father of the Orlando nightclub shooter. Why was he at her rally, and did the Clinton campaign even know he was there? Plus, secrets, spying, payoffs and, quote, "twirling." Brand-new accusations against FOX News and its former CEO, including audiotapes of alleged harassment.