and what happens if the fbi has to recuse itself? there's no deputy fbi. i mean, so, yeah, among people who want a real investigation into the trump/russia ties the word today was, yay, jeff sessions is recusing himself from this matter but now it's time for much harder questions with much more worrying implications. is the fbi legitimately investigating this incredibly serious national security matter or not? beyond their own supposed investigation, is the fbi in fact blocking the other major investigation that's supposed to be going on? one very serious, very sober person in a position to know the answer to that says that is what the fbi is doing and he's demanding to know why. that person will join us live here in just a few minutes. so that flaming comet of a story is coming up on our show tonight in what has been a whipsaw day in the news but we're going to do that story second tonight. we're going to lead tonight with a different story. we're going to lead with news we are going to break here exclusively. we have obtained a document. we have now veri

fbi was number five. apple was number four that is painful to contemplate but we have to be ahead of them attracting people to be a part of this mission one of the major challenges was summed up by one of my daughters who said the problem is you are the may and which i thought was a complement and i said thinking you she said no. that is not a good thing who wants to work for the man? said you are right bieber wrong because if people will the new with the men and women of the fbi wants to be a part of this mission so we are about to showing people what this is like the fbi is in the addictive life almost nobody leaves a matter what you look like for your background turnover is about the same .5% it is addictive work soviets trying to show people what it is like to be a part of this mission with the you are the man trap is to be a little cooler than i may appear. to offer them the enterprise that is more agile we're not going to beanbag chairs earlier trying to get close to that to make sure these great yo

does the president still have complete confidence in fbi director comey? >> there is no reason to believe he doesn't at this time. >> hardly a r today, adam schiff, offered a time line. >> months -- >> reporter: seeking to connect the dots between various trump associates and known instances of russian interference. >> roger stone, a long-time trump political adviser, self-proclaimed political dirty trickster, boasts in a speech he communicated with assange and more documents coming including october surprise. the congressman offered a parade of former trump operatives including carter page, paul manifort and roger stone all but accusing them of colluding with russia. coincidence that jeff sessions failed to tell the senate about meetings with the russian ambassador. coincidence michael flynn would lie about a conversation with the same russian ambassador? is it possible all these events and reports are completely unrelated? and nothing more than a entirely unhappy yes, it is possible. but it is also possible, maybe more than possible, that they're not coi

he made a point of saying, comey, the fbi director that the justice department, the fbi they rarely, if ever, talk about ongoing investigations especially investigations involving classified material. but this is an exception. listen. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. as with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of any crimes were committed. >> you were once the chair of the house intelligence committee. how extraordinary is this? >> and an fbi agent. and i have to tell you that's extraordinary. because when you talk about. the fact there was an investigation by the fbi into what the russians may have been doing, you would hope and expect that

both candidates were under fbi investigation, but the fbi leaks endlessly about hillary's. and finally mr. comey himself while clearing hillary, put on a 60 or 90-minute imto meshl attacking her. which was astonishing. he said we don't talk about investigations even when they're over, because we don't want to smear people. so there's a lot of bitterness in this. but it was striking that a guy like comey stood there and called the president a liar. our president is a liar. he lies about small things, silly things. but this is about our allies in the uk, our closest allies in great britain. this is about our former president. this is big stuff. we know he's a liar, we learned that today, according to the nsa director and the fbi director. and we know he's under federal investigation for potential collusion with a hostile foreign power. that's astonishing stuff. and for it to be coming from comey, it's extraordinary. >> i really did see it totally differently, and not getting talking points -- actually, they do send talking points, but i'm not using them. look, i was on a radi

we don't know all the details of his prior statements with or to the fbi. that may be something the general is worried about and his lawyers are worried about. we'll have to see the details as they develop. >> if i can add one point, immunity deals never give you immunity for lying to the fbi in the course of your immunized stateme statements. you still have to tell the truth. once you get immunity. that's why they don't want to give you immunity unless they are pretty sure you are telling the truth which means they have to do all this other investig e investigating first. >> i want to read the first line from his attorney. general flynn has a story to tell and very much wants to tell it should circumstances permit. >> that's to tantalize the fbi into getting serious about an immunity deal. if i were in the white house, i would be thinking, this is a guy we fired, a guy a lot of white house aides said pretty negative things about. i don't get the sense he has much loyalty anymore to the trump administration, and so if the fbi's investigation is as broad as

it's the fbi making the public push for clarification. >> reporter: tonight fbi officials are demanding a flat-out denial from the justice department but not yet getting one, this after president trump went on a twitter tirade, tweeting just found out president obama tapped in i phones in trump tower. bad or sick guy. sources tell cnn the fbi asked the doj to refute the claim because as a matter of law, the president cannot unilaterally allow eavesdropping of a president's phone only the congress. >> the process to attempt a fisa process, involves operational and senior leadership review both within the requesting agency and the department of justice and ultimately the court. >> reporter: so far the justice department isn't commenting on trump's twitter accusations but wondering why comey is refraining from issuing a statement, while he commented three times about the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail verver. former president obama denying the charge saying neither president obama or the white house official ordered any surveillance on any u.s. citizen. any suggestion is false

the nsa and fbi told russia did not influence. electoral process but that took comey's words out of congress. >> it certainly wasn't our intention to say that today. >> he spoke about russia's actions in blunt terms saying their goal was to influence the election and help donald trump. >> engaged in a multifaceted campaign of active measures to undermine our democracy and hurt one of the candidates and hope to help one of the other candidates. >> at the white house, press secretary sean spicer argued today the hearings revealed nothing knew. he was pressed on how he drew that conclusion considering comey and rogers said they were still investigating it. >> there's a point at which you continue to search for something that everybody's been briefed vaent hasn't seen or found. i think it's fine to look into it, but at the end of the day they're going to come to the same conclusion that everybody else has had. >> now, sean spicer went on to say as he tried to limit the involvement of the russian operatives with the campaign operatives

are we going to hear from the fbi? is the house and the administration going to turn over the evidence it says it has that president trump was wiretapped. >> based on what we're hearing from capitol hill, don't bet on it. senator lindsey graham kind of poured cold water on the notion that we're going to get some type of affirmative assurance from the fbi director as to whether or not there is any investigation into a possibility connection between russia and the trump campaign. that seems to contradict or at least conflict a bit with something that was said just yesterday by democratic senator whitehouse from rhode island. he suggested there would be an assurance of some time and he told a number of reporters including manu raju he thought there would be some assurance. anybody's guess as to what's going to happen. but what is clear is senator graham is going to continue pressing on the issue of russia as well as pressing on the issue of wiretaps and the president's allegations. let's listen. >> i've seen no evidence o

music to protect fbi information. it's essential to protecting the kind of cyberintrusions i talk about. strong encryption is a great thing. but we also believe user control of data is not a requirement for strong encryption. i give you an example from the fbi's life. we issue electronic vices to her workrc but we still retain control over those devices and in response we have the ability to produce, access devices and produce information. the ability to do so by design does not require weak encryption. it does require us to design the system in a different way that they guarantee every business is doing. that's why describe not so much a technical issue, but a business model issue. it doesn't solve the problem, but it frames it in a way that makes more sense. here's the deal, though. it is not the fbi's job to tell the american people how they lived. our job is to investigate. when our tools are less effect is, you want to know about it so you can figure out what to do. i also don't they get the job of tech companies

the fbi cyber division. the u.s. attorney's office for the northern district of california, and our partners here at the department of justice and the national security division. of those to all involved for your outstanding and ongoing contribution to resolving this case. we are extremely grateful as well to our international partners for their assistance and support leading up to these criminal charges today. those partners include canada's royal mounted police and as mentioned, the toronto police service and the fugitive squad. as well, the united's kingdoms m i5 made contributions to this as well. i want to thank our fbi legal personnel in ottawa and london for their great work in supporting and moving forward the operation and investigations that underline the charges today. i want to close by saying that we at the fbi, together with our partners in the doj, will continue to work hard day in and together without inter-, international, and private sector partners to identify those who conduct cyber attacks agains

and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for doj and all its components. the department has no information that supports those tweets. but we didn't hear any backing away from those tweets over at the white house briefing. >> no, because sean spicer kept saying these investigations are continuing. the second part of that statement is most significant. when he says the broader justice department, main justice, donald trump's justice department says president trump was wrong. you just have to underline that and.line that and but then the fact that president trump wouldn't let it go. that they wouldn't say let it go. the tweets they are sent by the official potus account by the staff and mischaracterizing or taking out of context things that that the fbi director was saying at a congressional hearing. you start this spiral. to the point where we ended, chairman nunes at the end was saying to the fbi director finish as fast as as you can, do a t

and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all its components. the department has no information that supports those tweets. >> president obama could not unilatly order a wiretap of anyone? >> no one could. >> reporter: disputing that tweet, quote, obama had my wires tapped in trump towers. but testimony focused on russian meddling. finding it was in part in animosity to one candidate. >> putin hated secretary clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference to the person running against the person he hated so much. >> reporter: comey saying they made no attempt trail. >> it was almost as if they didn't care they knew what they were doing or they wanted us to see what they were doing. they will be back in 2020. they may be back in 2018. >> reporter: much of the emphasis on disclosures about former security adviser, michael flynn's conversations with the ambassador. one republican a

tonight fbi director james comey for the first time publicly confirming that the fbi is investigating alleged links between russia and associates of the trump campaign. an investigation that began last july. >> the fbi, as part of our counter intelligence commission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> in a rebuke to the president, comey said there is no evidence to support the president's claim that former president obama had, quote, wires tapped inside trump tower. >> i have no information that supports those tweets. and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all its components. >> the head of the nsa, admiral mike rogers also denying a report repeated by the white house that the obam

you worked at the fbi and the cia for a long career. the director of the national security agency, admiral mike rogers effectively rebukked the white house for the claim that britain was engaged in surveillance of trump tower on behalf of president obama as well which is obviously not true. >> as an intelligence professional, do you understand what this means to people like me? you have not only accused the u.s. intelligence committee of participating in something illegal, that's the president of the united states ordering a wiretap. he can't do that. you have accused a partner of conducting an operation that's illegal under u.s. law. if you are in london as i was many times talking to british security officials, they have to be saying what's going on here? what's happening here, wolf, less than two months or about two months into the administration is a divide between members of the executive branch, which is led by the president, and the president himself, to the point where the president is live tweeting stuff today about statements

we use it to protect the fbi's information. we believe it is in central to protect against the kind of cyber intrusions i talked about. strong encryption is a great thing, it allows us to protect people. though we also believe that user control of data is not a requirement for strong encryption. an example, we issue personal electronic devices to our workforce. but we still retain some control over those devices, and we have the ability to produce, to access those devices and access information on those devices under lawful authority to it does not require weak encryption, but requires we design the system in a different way. i guarantee every business in the united states who gets their employee devices is doing this. it is not so much a technical issue as a business model issue. that does not solve the problem but i think it frames it in a way that makes more sense. here is the deal, it is not the fbi's job to tell the american people how to live. our job is to investigate. i think our job is to tell folks that would our tool

the fbi director confirmed an fbi investigation into whether trump allies coulluded. >> by a month after the election, the intelligence community came to clear conclusion of russian interference. driven by vladimir putin's disdain for hillary clinton. >> they wanted to hurt our democracy. hurt her. help him. putin hated secretary clinton so much, the flip side of that coin, he had a clear preference running against the person he hated so much. the summer went on and polls showed secretary clinton would win, russians gave up and focused on undermining her. >> republicans focused on their part of the hearing that led to the forced resignation of michael flynn. sean spicer asked about surveillance of russian officials who flynn talked to. spicer raised questions about who knew it and was flynn on the other end? >> why was a name that should have been protected by law put on in the public domain? what else do we need to know? who else was behind that unmasking? there is a way to go. i get you want to know the end of the book, but we are in the first chapper. >> the fbi director confirmation

as you recall, fbi director james comey made bombshell announcement monday before congress that the fbi is investigating the trump campaign's tying to russia. so fbi is reviewing the information. including human intelligence, travel, business and phone records, accounts of in-person meeting. information raised suspicions of fbi counterintelligence investigators that the coordination may have taken place but officials caution this information is not conclusive and investigation is ongoing. fbi would not comment nor who the white house but trump officials denied evidence of collusion. >> gives us more insight into what comey knew when he spoke on monday at those hearings. >> exactly right. if you recall in addition to comey saying the investigations include looking at connections to trump associates, he also explained what it means that the investigation is being done. take a listen. >> don't you need some action or some information besides just attending a meeting, having been paid to attend a conference, that a picture was taken or you traveled to country before you're open to investiga

i want to highlight and commend the exceptional work of the fbi's san francisco field office, the fbi cyber division, ds attorneys office for the northern district of california and our partners here at the department of justice and the national security division. thank you to all those involved for your outstanding and ongoing contributions to resolving this case. we are extremely grateful as well to our international partners for their assistance and support leading up to these criminal charges today. those partners include canada's royal canadian mounted police, and a smidgen, the toronto police service and their fugitive squad. as wealthy united kingdom in my five made substantial contributions to the advancement of this investigation also. i want to thank additionally fbi legal attachÉ personnel in ottawa and in london for the great work in supporting and moving forward the operations and investigations that underlie the charges today. and i want to close by saying that we at the fbi together with our partners in the doj will continue to work hard day in and day out together wit

. >> and the fbi director james comey talks about the fbi's increasing focus on cybersecurity. the importance of private companies partner with law-enforcement agencies to combat online criminals. director comey delivered the keynote address at the annual boston conference on cybersecurity which was cosponsored by his agents in austin college. he also said intent to serve out the remaining six and a half years of his decade-long term as fbi director. following his departure took a few questions. this is about an hour. [applause] >> thanks for the introduction. good morning everybody. thanks to give me a chance to share some thoughts with you. this is the perfect place to have this conference and i'm thrilled to be part of the inaugural gathering. i hope there will be many more. it's the perfect place for the reasons that hank shaw said, not just because of the challenges and opportunities in this great city in this region, but because boston college is a leader in thinking and educating on these incredibly important issues. so this is a great place to have it. hope you will do

and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all its components. >> then there was this. that the trump campaign has been under an fbi investigation since last summer in connection with russian meddling in the election. >> the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government, and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> tonight the white house is clinging to the discredited wiretap claim as it works to change the narrative on the russian investigation. a historic day in washington that also includes the first day of hearings for supreme court nominee neil gorsuch. we have it all covered starting with nbc's andrea mitchell. >> reporter: today

fbi director can't get u.s. government to move fast enough to face the missions you have to face. >> it's a hard one. i need you all to help us be smarter and better. i talked about the attitude of humility when it comes to cyber. the commander's intent is you will find that in all aspects of the bureaus for. you do not have a monopoly on wisdom. we need you to bring to us smarter ways of doing things, cheaper ways of doing things, faster ways of doing things and help us be agile. it's hard to be agile we need the break ahead, but we are determined to be humble enough, proud enough of our century of achievement, but humble enough to be agile. you will bring us the opportunities that demonstrate that agility. second, i hope you will urge her people, especially those in place for a longer-term contract to get part of our culture. one of my concerns is that long-term contract areas who don't feel part of the fbi and to act like they work for me. i know they work for you, but i need them to be part of our culture. i

the fbi versus the president. >> the fbi would've been the ones conducting an investigation. it it would've been charged with the responsibility of executing any wiretapping pursuant to benny ward. to to think the fbi is coming out and say this is not true is a very interesting development. it is pretty easy to figure it out. you just have to go to the court, their secret proceedings but somewhere there is a record of what happened and whether or not this warrant actually exist. >> eric: can you walk us through briefly the whole process. three people in in the department of justice, the deputy attorney general and head of the national security department, they're the ones that can prove this and then it goes to a judge to approve it then a fisa warrant is issued. >> absolutely. the judge just as an issue these willy-nilly. you have to come in with evidence and show probable cause that there some sort of espionage or issue. otherwise the court will deny it. that is what we see in the court. the original warrant and this is not confirmed yet, the original warrant was too broad.

a president can get rid of an fbi director. it happened to the fbi director before bob muller. he was actually ushered out the door after there were allegations he was using federal fund to make some improvements at his house. i think it would be extraordinary for any nuchlt to move an fbi director for anything less than obvious misconduct on the job. >> to our viewers just joining you, top of the 10 a.m. hour, we've just seen fbi director comey come down the hallway. this is the time when we were supposed to be gavelled into order. as far as we can tell, not all the members are in the room as of yet. we saw a brief

the current fbi director was the fbi director then. what does he do? a little different from when he attacked the media, you know, the failing new york times, or if 3 million voters -- silly things or simply irresponsible things, but this demonstrates a kind of institutional crisis. so we call for quick, open hearings of the highest level. could be the president who appoints independent committees headed up by serious people to get to the whole truth. what was the trump-russia connection? what did the obama administration do? what is the truth about the complex issues raised about the 20 16th campaign? is a and there congressional investigation currently taking place? guest: there is so much partisanship already on those committees, and so many people have already weighed in. the chairman of the house intelligence committee is already giving opinions about what is happening. would prefer is to poppers heard attorneys general, one from each party, or two judges on senior status appointed by obama and bush, highly respected people, and they will have ful

i trust the fbi. i absolutely do. i have known different fbi agents. they are very good people. and honestly, they are fair and honest, and i trust them, just like i do the state police. -- with you are doing your opposition to trump, you and the left wing are joining together. you do not want to change the system. the system suits you find. fine- the system suits you . and you need to just go away. even james comey, i respect him. i would not trust him blindly. but it is donald trump who attacked him saturday morning, not me. so your problem is with donald trump. i disagree with donald trump on some things. i do not expect him to do my bidding. it is a free country. we are allowed to agree or disagree with him. i am happy to agree when i can. i want to agree with the republican nominee. i admire him for his appointments to or missing people like me wants to keep it the way it is -- honestly, it is simpleminded. i want to change some things and keep other things mostly the way they are, like having a free country, free media, having a president who behaves in a dignified way in

the current fbi director was the fbi director then. what does he do? a little different from when he attacked the media, you know, the failing new york times, or if 3 million voters -- silly things or simply irresponsible things, but this demonstrates a kind of institutional crisis. so we call for quick, open hearings of the highest level. could be the president who appoints independent committees headed up by serious people to get to the whole truth. what was the trump-russia connection? what did the obama administration do? what is the truth about the complex issues raised about the 20 16th campaign? is a and there congressional investigation currently taking place? guest: there is so much partisanship already on those committees, and so many people have already weighed in. the chairman of the house intelligence committee is already giving opinions about what is happening. would prefer is to poppers heard attorneys general, one from each party, or two judges on senior status appointed by obama and bush, highly respected people, and they will have ful

that said, you never know what the fbi is going to find. you never know how people react, you never know when people might lie under oath. we'll see what happens. >>> david drucker, that was one big revelation yesterday. the other big revelation from director comey is that there was no evidence the that he nor the department of justice could find to support president trump's claim that he was wiretapped by president obama. nothing, zilch, nada, nothing. so where does that leave congress and their investigation? is this over? >> well, no, it's not over. look, i feel like the revelation that the president didn't have a leg to stand on here. it's like when we headline shock poll, everyone likes aice cream. we knew for two weeks that the president didn't have a leg to stand on. it's interesting that comey said so and makes a good headline for the democrats. but it's hard to undercut credibility that doesn't exist on this shall. i don't think it affects the senate investigations. the senate investigation with their intelligence committee and wit

and we have looked carefully inside the fbi. the department of justice has asked me to share with you that the answer is the same for the department of justice and all its components. the department has no information that supports those tweets. >> president obama could not unilatly order a wiretap of anyone? >> no one could. >> reporter: disputing that tweet, quote, obama had my wires tapped in trump towers. but testimony focused on russian meddling. finding it was in part in animosity to one candidate. >> putin hated secretary clinton so much that the flip side of that coin was he had a clear preference to the person running against the person he hated so much. >> reporter: comey saying they made no attempt to cover their trail. >> it was almost as if they didn't care they knew what they were doing or they wanted us to see what they were doing. they will be back in 2020. they may be back in 2018. >> reporter: much of the emphasis on disclosures about former security adviser, michael flynn's conversations with the ambassador. o

the fbi would know. so david gergen, why wouldn't the president do, perhaps, a little bit more investigating? why couldn't he see something like this happening where he makes an allegation like this and then, you know, his own agency, the fbi could knock it down. of course the fbi knows what the reality is? >> jay tapper has been reporting from his contacts at the white house. they seem to be -- the aides of the president seem to be saying to him, listen, he picked this up from breitbart. what a conservative radio commentator said, he hasn't picked this up from official government sources. have you to wonder, pamela, to your very good question. my sense is this is only an interpretation, that he was so frustrated and so angry that he's been looking for a way to go back on offense in terms of pr. he wanted to move the focus away from jeff sessions. he wanted to get away from what he thought was a bad story. he was angry at his people. he came up with a way saturday morning to invent a whole news story. >>

fbi for being unable to stop leakers. so, now, the big question is, how long is comey going to last. he does ultimately serve at discretion of the president and now the white house said today during the briefing that the president still has faiming in the fbi director. so we'll see. >> we while see indeed. katie williams great to you have on. thanks for copping in tonight. >> thanks, guys. >> moving on tonight republicans say they're confident judge neal goresuch will receive. >> and supreme court reporter for washington examiner joins us. ryan you wereed in the hearing room this afternoon and any big surprises and take away from today's testimony. >> i think the their hands at what is coming tomorrow and previewed attacks on judge gorsuch and previewed him as someone who is a friend of corporate interests and no friend of enemy of the little guy and i think what we say was senators like dick durban talking about how gorsuch was part of the plot to takeover the judiciary and i think that's the kind after tacks we're going

there's only 14,000 fbi agents. while the fbi agents follow their chain of command, one of the things that everyone is instilled to do, you don't have to follow legal orders. this idea that an fbi agent would wiretap illegally, it's dangerous to the rank and file. if it did happen, it would more along the lines of a coup in turkey. it doesn't go along with the professionalism of these agents in the intelligence committee. it's a morale-busting statement for the for the say about his people. >> if you're saying fbi director comey, it's better handled in a letter to the senators that asked him for that information, that it shouldn't necessarily be public, confirming there's an investigation, for our viewers at home who might wonder why it was okay to confirm there was an investigation into hillary clinton's -- announcing the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail, why is it okay to say there was an investigation there but it's not okay to say, yes, there's an investigation into this? >> that is such a great point

it was an fbi agent calling the i.t. guy over -- >> yes, a -- a lower-level contact after a lot of political noise and a lot of rumor, it was a lower-level contact, basically what we would call a tech or investigative help, staff-to-staff. the fbi director saying, i would walk over there myself is the difference between what we might consider a consumer-based hack and something of national security proportion. >> malcolm nance has been watching with us. we often call on him when the subject turns to the intelligence business. malcolm, we spoke at the break. your assessment of what you heard today. >> well, katy tur put it baexacy as you saw. there were two hearings going on today. i found it fascinating. the democrats were on the offensive today. even though a lot of their questions couldn't be answered because they knew, you know, director comey was just going to say, no comment or answer the question the same way, they laid out sequentially the entire case of the russian hacking, how it impacted the nation, and they ca

at a desk at the fbi? all of those things are things that you would imagine a president would want to do but is restrained from doing with proper advice from counsel. >> well, he certainly has no problem calling out judges on his twitter account and that's getting closer to the area of obstruction. the obstruction statute is actually somewhat narrow. there is no grand jury at this point. so it's very hard to obstruct justice unless you actually have a court proceeding. >> interesting. >> because that's where justice is dispensed. there can be obstruction of congress and other things like that by lying to them and so on. but the obstruction of justice statute hasn't come into play because it's too early into the investigation. they're going into this with a very bad mentality that's going to get them in a lot of trouble. >> it was the impaneling of a grand jury that ultimately was so crucial in watergate. what did that develop then? >> because of the break-in and the arrests of the break-in, there was a nat

today the fbi director publicly confirmed for the first time that the fbi has been investigating links between the trump campaign and russia since july. here's what sean spicer had to say. >> following this testimony, it's clear that nothing has changed. senior obama intelligence officials have gone on record to confirm there's no evidence of a trump/russia collusion. the obama cia director said so, obama's director of national intelligence said so, and we take them at their word. >> nothing has changed, really? >> i think a lot has changed. >> this was extraordinary to have the fbi director confirming publicly and on going counter intelligence investigation about whether the campaign of the sitting president was involved in coordination or collusion with a foreign power. now, among the many amazing revelations from comey today, is that this investigation was actually launched in late july. shortly after the republican convention ended, more than three months before election day. and none of that was known to the public. now, one can understand the fbi does not normally disclose sunshi

the fbi is and its director comey is very mindful of how his organization and fbi is being perceived through all of this. the idea that somehow the fbi working with the obama administration would illegally wiretap his phone concerned him. so over the weekend he went ahead and we don't know if it was him specifically or someone else at the fbi called the department of justice and told them we need to do something about this. we need to refute this. we don't know who in the department of justice, the fbi spoke to. remember sessions, the tendatto general, had to recuse himself from this investigation because of his meeting with the russian ambassador. so we don't know who he spoke to. we don't really know a lot details about the conversation. but keep in mind, this is a pretty big development for the fbi to go against the president and to ask the department of justice to tell the president basically like we need to knock this down. >> right, so as we know, rarely anything happens in the fbi without director comey's approval. he's not shied away from going solo without the support of the

the fbi director got burned in the fall. now he goes back to the hill months after this investigation has been opened and again says we have information that we have to tell you has led us to open an investigation against president trump's team. i look at that and say there is no way he did that unless after months he looked at the information they're collecting and saying this is pretty ugly. there's smoke here, but he does not reveal that unless he's saying this has to be exposed to the american public. that's serious. >> ryan, the fall back for the white house and the administration has been to the leakers. how do you think they're going to respond to this? they can't just simply blame the leakers this time. >> i think they're going to respond, well, this is nothing new. all week they've basically been dismissing any kind of reports. i have a sort of naive and maybe counter intuitive question to this. if you're the person the fbi is looking at at what point do your actions move from just being normal political activities

fbi is investigating the ties to russia. the fbi is reviewing that information which includes human intelligence and travel and business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings. the information is raising suspicion of fbi investigators that the coordination may have is taken place. officials caution this is not conclusive and the investigation is ongoing and more work needs to be done. the fbi would not comment nor the white house. donald trump officials denied collusion. the fbi is focused on the stolen and published e-mails by wikileaks over john podesta. the information was not drawn from the information compiled by the former british intelligence official. this suggested coordination with trump campaign associates and russian operatives. this investigation is ongoing. this is what we are told in terms of what is going on in the fbi as of now with the counter intelligence investigation. dave and christine. >> so many developments. thank you. all of this came down as another controversy on capitol hill. big qu

both the house and senate intelligence committee, the fbi. but, yeah. i think that when you get to the bottom of it, we'll have a much better picture of what's happening. it will continue to vindicate him. >> on a follow-up, the question tweeted about a possible dnc connection to russia during the election. is he under the impression that the clinton campaign had inappropriate contact with russia during the election? >> that's an interesting aspect of all of this that's not being covered. from everything that has been publicly available, on several occasions the dnc was asked by the fbi to allow their servers to be looked at despite all of the claims of their concerns about leaking. yet the question still doesn't come out, why wouldn't the dnc, on multiple occasions, rebuff the fbi? why were they not wanting -- if they were so concerned about hacks and leaking, why did the dnc not ask the fbi to come look? not only did they not ask them, they rebuffed them on multiple occasions. why? what are they hiding? what were they concerned about? i think this is

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fbi director james comey has confirmed the fbi is investigating whether president trump's campaign collaborated -- colluded with russia to sway the 2016 election. >> i been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. and that includes investigating the nature of any links betwewen individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian therement, and whether was any court nation between a campaign and russia's efforts. amy: that's fbi director james comey speaking before the house intelligence committee monday, issuing the first public confirmation of the agency's investigation into the relationship between trump's campaign and russia. comey also said the fbi has no information that supports trump's unsubstantiated claims that president obama tapped trump's phones in trump tower during the electioion. >> with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, i have no infor

or for cooperation in terms of the fbi. those discussions our understanding have happened in recent days there is a statement now out from michael flynn's lawyer who is saying that he would agree to testify under certain circumstances, and that they have had these conversations. and his lawyers are saying that their concern is not so much that michael flynn has something to hide. they're saying he doesn't, or that he has something that he should be concerned about. but that in this political environment, he would not be treated fairly. so he is asking for he's asking for immunity from any prosecution to be able to give his testimony and cooperate and not have any consequences should something arise that could be criminally prosecuted. >> and i think, in your story, you cited the fbi as well as the house intelligence committee and the senate. the house intelligence committee spokesman for chairman nunes has said that michael flynn has not asked for immunity. the lawyer's statement does talk about the house intelligence commu

of course the the fbi director serves at the pleasure of the president. he report we went to the president wants to deny trumps accusation saying he felt as though the president has acute studio fbi of accusing a crime which it did not commit. we cannot corroborate that report that the new york times had out. we can we can tell you that law-enforcement officials tell us that the most senior members of a federal law enforcement were "caught completely off guard by the presidents tweets on saturday morning" adding that they had no idea what the president was talking about. the white house also not commenting or offering evidence in terms of support nor have they offered any clarifications of the accusations. they have essentially pass the baton to congress. the house intelligence committee and i was part of their investigation into the russian involvement in the u.s. election. still a lot of unanswered questions, including whether mr. trump's senior staff senior staff that was caught off guard were told by the saturday morning tweets believed what the presi

the fbi director confirmed for the first time there is an fbi investigation into whether trump allies colluded with russia with the election meddling. >> comey told senators the investigation started in late july and they had come to the clear conclusion of the russian interference driven by vladimir putin's disdain for hillary clinton. >> they wanted to hurt our democracy. hurt her. help him. putin hated secretary clinton so much, the flip side, he had a clear preference running. as the summer went on and the polls appeared to show secretary clinton was going to win, the russians gave up and focused on trying to undermine her. >> the republicans focused during their part of the hearing of leaks that led to the resignation of michael flynn. press secretary sean spicer asked later of russian officials who flynn talked to. spicer raised question who knew it was flynn on the other end of the conversations and why did they leak? >> why was a name that should have been protected by law put out in the public demain? what else do we need to know? who was behind that unmasking? >> there is a