papadopoulos that plead guilty to lying to the fbi and agreed to be a cooperating witness for the robert mueller special counsel investigation. the way it works, a judge is supposed to factor into your senten sentence. to measure that, they have to wait until you're done cooperating. they wait until law enforcement has everything they might want to get out of you before they bring you up for your sentencing before the judge. today was the day that lawyers on both sides of the george pop dop laus case were supposed to have a conference that will sentence papadopoulos. the government is nowhere near done with them yet and that is not happening. they delayed the initial conversation about sentencing for three months. so we don't know what that means but then tonight in an interview with the washington post, george papadopoulos' fiancee proclaims, you can see in the headline. she proclaimed george papadopoulos will be the john dean of the russia investigation. john dean, of course, was white house counsel to richard nixon and plead guilty in watergate and became the single most important wit

jim sciutto in again for wolf blitzer. the fbi sounding the alarm over a secret republican memo accusing the fbi of abusing its surveillance powers. the fbi issuing a defiant statement just now, saying, quote, the fbi was provided a limited opportunity to review this memo the day before the committee voted to release it. as expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy. our crime and justice reporter joins us now with the latest developments. tell us the back story. the fbi is saying this is just fact ch factually incorrect. >> that's certainly their concern. their statement says that they really didn't have a whole lot of time to review this memo. from everything they have seen, that is the fbi director, christopher wray, has seen this memo. from everything he has seen, he has concerns that it is going to be misleading, that there are inaccuracies. this memo, apparently, from fwht i've been told in talking to sources, does not paint a full pictu

witting or unwitting fashion and that served as a basis for the fbi investigation to determine whether such collusion, cooperation occurred. >> that served as the basis for the fbi investigation. that is how the fbi investigation came to be. the fbi investigation not just into russian interference in our presidential election but the possibility of the trump campaign being involved in it, cooperating in that effort somehow. that is how the fbi investigation got started. u.s. intelligence obtained information, obtained intel about suspicious contacts between the trump campaign and russia while russia was trying to influence the election to trump's benefit. ex-cia director john brennen testified about this in open session back in may. his testimony remains the best on the record information we've got from someone in a position to know because he was there, about how and why that whole investigation started. basically about why we are going through this as a country. i mean that's still the best information and the most direct information we've got about what the intelligence comm

fbi and justice department. that informant part of the investigation bay the senate homeland security committee, its chairman is senator ron johnson. and the senator has made it clear his committee is now nfts gaitininvestigating the fbi. the so-called secret society, all who were working to subvert president trump. >> we have an informant that's talking about a group that were holding secret meetings off site. there is so much smoke here. this is bias, potentially corruption at the highest levels of the fbi that we're now investigating. and by the way, robert mueller used to run the fbi. he is in no position to do an investigation over this kind of misconduct. lou: all of this as robert mueller has gone on the defensive over the past few days. the special counsel office showing brazen a toward presidet trump and his administration. and as questions mount about the political corruption of mueller's conflicted team of partisans, the leaks from the special counsel's office have become more frequent, as evidence of the highly partisan leadership of both the justice department an

pled guilty to lyi lying to the fbi and agreed to be a cooperating witness for the robert mueller special investigation. the way it works, a judge is supposed to factor into your sentence how much help you have been to law enforcement while you have been cooperating. in order to measure that, they have to wait until you're done cooperating before they get sentenced. they wait until law enforcement has everything they might want to get out of you before they bring you up for your sentencing before the judge. today was the day that lawyers on both sides of the george papadopoulos case were supposed to have a conference with the judge who will sentence mr. papadopoulos. but apparently the government is not done with him yet. they are nowhere near done with him yet and thatti sentencing i not happening. they delayed the initial conversation about sentencing for three months. so we don't know what that means but then tonight in an interview with "the washington post," george papadopoulos's fiancee proclaimed that george papadopoulos will be the john dean of the russia investigation. jo

this hour. first, the number two at the fbi is out today. andrew mccabe, a frequent target of donald trump's cyber attacks on twitter, announcing his resignation. mccabe is a central figure in the russia investigation for many reasons, mainly as deputy director under jim comey. he was aware of donald trump and then director jim comey's interactions. he was a witness to the circumstances of comey's firing, one of the flash points of interest to special counsel bob mueller. here's white house spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders on today's news of mccabe's resignation. >> can you say definitively the president did not play a role in andrew mccabe stepping down? >> yes, the president wasn't a part of this decision-making process and we would refer you to the fbi where christopher wray serves as the director which as i said last week, and i'll repeat again today, the president has full confidence in him and has put the decisions at the fbi in his hands. >> but her answer defies the reality that the president is very much involved in personnel decisions for his new fbi director chris

trump and they've already spokenton attorney general jeff sessions and fired fbi director james comey among others. but tuesday the president publicly expressed his reservations about testifying before special counsel mueller. >> certainly i'll see what happens, but when they have no collusion and nobody has found any collusion at any level, it seems unlikely that you would even have an interview. >> no collusion. we've heard the president mention that a time or two. he did again tonight. the question of collusion came up earlier today at the white house briefing. >> the president has said repeatedly there was no collusion between the campaign and russia. can you define what he means when he says collusion? is he talking about meetings between officials, is he talking about information exchanging hands? >> i think the accusation against the president is that he had help winning the election, and that's simply untrue. >> does he think that the reporting from the intelligence community saying there was hacking that went on done by russia, he rejects that? >> no, he's addressed that, but

, bob mueller has completed his interview of jim comey, the former fbi director, we know that because the comey interview then leaked to the same times reporter. that's not all. the times report that the interview focused on trump and the alleged request to drop the investigation of mike flynn, a key topic because trump went on to fire comey and that flynn went on toer coopera ecooperate bob mueller. of all the interviews today, tonight's news on jeff sessions is the first report of a trump cabinet official getting grilled. the interviews important, but none of this means that anyone did anything wrong. mueller could interview jeff sessions and clear him and the administration for any wrong doing. even after trump fired jim comey, trump kept trying to do a partisan purge and clean house at the fbi that was so extreme, his own appointment mike wray threatened to resign. here's my colleague, rachel maddow. >> jonathan swan has just reported within the last hour, some dramatic news about the fbi, he's reporting that fbi director chris wray is threatening to resign from the fbi or at leas

ask the top fbi official who he voted for. was it a loyalty test or a getting aquainted time? >> and starting all over again on immigration. can they reach a deal? and growing storm costly the special counsel look into the reported hush money payment to porn star stormy daniels following her alleged sexual relationship with donald trump? i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> robert mueller's team has interviewed mike pompeo and will soon interview the chief strategist steve bannon about the firings of michael flynn and fbi director james comey as the russia investigation closes in on the oval office. our correspondents and specialists are standing by with full coverage. >>> this took place last year. the focus. questions were told by one source it is on the president's conversations with him to make a public statement that the president was not under investigation for collusion. we're also learning that when other witnesses were interviewed, that again and again the subject comes but that the firings of james comey and michael flynn, clear evidence that the special co

folded. tonight, more shocking revelation much corruption at highest level of fbi and justice department, someone at fbi destroying 5 months worth of text-messages, between peter strzok and lisa page. spanning a critical window between presidential transition and launch of robert mueller oso called russia probe. and telling the public that those e-mails were lost cause of a technical glitch. congressman ron desantos said that fbi director wray needs tech stocks are plan how the texts could have been deleted. we take unth unup the steep sta- take unthe deep state. congressman desantos among our guests here. also tonight, schumer shut down has ended. president trump making sure that would be so. making it clear these would negotiate status of millions of illegal immigrants while chuck schumer and dems held the government hostage. this morning, schumer caved. we'll take it up with two of finest political strategists, and great americans ed rollins and michael goodwin. new warnings this north korea is only months away from possessing the ability it carry out a nuclear attack again

also have michael flynn who is now cooperating with robert mueller. a year ago today flynn met with fbi investigators in the west wing without a lawyer present, and that notably he didn't tell the president or top white house officials about it. the white house actually learned about that meeting two days later from then-acting attorney general sally yates, the very same official who warned the white house about flynn being a possible blackmail target. yates has also cooperated with the special counsel. nbc news also reporting that cia director mike pompeo who the president asked to lean on james comey to fire michael flynn, he also has been interviewed. and we learned steve bannon who also had a spectacular fallout with president trump is expected to talk to the special counsel's investigators by the end of this month. so a lot to talk about on a wednesday night as we talk to our lead panel, michael crowley, senior editor at politico, and jack sharmen is back with us for the bank committee and now the special services committee. these days he's a defense attorney. he will continue to b

>>> happening now, breaking news. the deputy of the fbi suddenly steps down under pressure and under attack by president trump. we have details on andrew mccabe's exit and the fury over the russia investigation. releasing a memo? the house intelligence committee is expected to decide whether to go public with the secret summery of abuses by the fbi. this hour, i'll ask a member of the panel what's been going on behind closed doors. >>> prosecutor protection. tracking proposed legislation to ensure president trump can't fire special counsel, robert mueller as he tried to last year. some republicans are on board and others are balking. >>> sanctioning the russians. this is the deadline for the trump administration to follow through on the meddling mandated and signed into law by the president. after months of foot dragging, will there be an announcement tonight? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you are in the "situation room." >>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. >>> we are following multiple breaking stories involvi

fbi. tonight axios reporter jonathan swann said it this way. he writes, quote, attorney general jeff sessions at the public urging of president donald trump has been pressuring fbi director christopher wray to fire fbi director andrew mccabe. but wray threatened to resign if mccabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. wray's situation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. the white house decidedly gunshy so mccabe remains. don mcgahn told sessions this issue wasn't worth losing the fbi director over, according to a source familiar with the situation. just yesterday jonathan swann also reported this, quote, attorney general jeff sessions has adamantly urged fbi director christopher wray to make a fresh start with his core team, including replacing deputy director and trump bete noire andrew mccabe, according to a senior administration source. according to this source and two other sources briefed on the conversations, sessions has been strongly urging wray to do this for some time. another person sessions thought should be clear

>>> happening now, war with the fbi. undermining the president's plan to release a memo. grave concerns and constitutional showdown over the russia investigation. >>> team sport. mr. trump appeared to test the loyalty of his deputy attorney general as he fished for information about the special counsel's investigation. stand by for our exclusive reporting on that. >>> congressional crash. train carrying dozens of gop lawmakers slams into a truck, killing the driver. we'll have the latest on the accident and tell you how congress, how members of congress are doing tonight. >>> did his cloak and dagger meeting with an american have something to do with his death? >>> wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking tonight, the bureau expressing grave concerns about a controversial republican memo that the president says he is certain to release at any moment. christopher wray saying the memo alleging fbi misconduct is misleading and blatant step to discredit the russia investigation. first to cnn justice correspondent, jessica schneider

day in june that james comey testified in congress about his fbi director and what he knew and about his firing by president trump, james comey said something in that testimony that was very memorable and very mysterious about the attorney general, jeff sessions. remember the major point of james comey's testimony that day was that the president had repeatedly pressured him as head of the fbi that he should drop the russia investigation, that he should lift the cloud that was looming over the trump presidency because of these on going criminal and counter intelligence russia investigations, comey says the president asked him to direct the fbi to let go of the investigation into trump national security advisor mike flynn. so james comey testified about those interactions with the president. he testified that he made notes detailed notes describing the president's directors to him after he had the communications with the president and explained under oath he shared the notes of what the president had done in realtime. he shared them with other season yo -- senior members of the fbi but

russia investigation. now chairman nunes written a memo alleging fbi misconduct over a warrant to eves drop on carter page. the doj warned the release of the memo is extraordinarily reckless. that didn't stop the gop from voting to release it. which is exactly what president trump wanted and they know that. it comes on the same day a surprise resignation of the fbi deputy director andrew mccabe. who stepped down in the wake of months of criticism from the president. we have a lot to cover in this hour. i want to bring in cnn justice correspondent. jessica snyder. good evening to you. two major breaking stories today. first on the controversial part season memo alleging fbi misconduct. the house gop voted to release it. >> it made its way to the white house. it will be reviewed by the white house counsel office. the national security council. and possibly the broader national security community. this is a five day revoo window. before the president must decide whether to declassify and distribute it publicly. we reported it last week the president is in fact inclined to make this public

the acting fbi director how he voted in the 2016 election. it all ties into this huge headline -- bob mueller seeks to question president trump about michael flynn and jim comey's departures. we've got the three reporters with those by-lines and each of those big stories on "morning joe." national political reporter for nbc news carol lee. "new york times" reporter michael schmidt and "washington post" reporter covering national security, devlin barrett. and we have veteran columnist and msnbc contributor mike barnicle and former fbi special agent clint watts along with willie, joe and me. let's get to it. it was a day of revelations in the russia probe with suggestions that special counsel robert mueller is closely examining whether president trump obstructed justice when he fired former fbi director james comey. the "washington post" reports that mueller is seeking to question president trump in the coming weeks about the firing of comey, and former national security adviser michael flynn. comey was interviewed by the special counsel late last year, a source close to him tells nbc n

there are reports out there that jeff sessions and the administration was pressuring fbi director christopher wray to remove a number of people in the fbi, including acting or including deputy director andrew mccabe. there is also a report from axios that christopher wray was going to resign over that if the pressure continued. nbc news has not confirmed that reporting. right now, we are rewinding a little bit in order to get the president's response. once we are done rewinding we will bring it to you in a moment. spoiler alert, he says he's not concerned about what jeff sessions told the fbi. he also says christopher wray did not threaten to resign. let's go right to kristen welker, in the white house. kristen, the president is trying to push back on this, obviously, but these two stories are pretty big. jeff sessions, a member of his cabinet, being interviewed by the special counsel. jeff sessions, who the president did not want to recuse himself, being interviewed by the special counsel and also, this idea that the administration is trying to meddle in the fbi, trying to remove

deputy director of the fbi is stepping down two months later. what is driving the pressure to clean house? then at any moment, the members of the house intelligence committee could release a controversial memo alleging the fbi broke surveillance laws in the russia investigation. releasing it would be extremely reckless and the fbi director went to check it out this weekend. will it show bias or a hand fisted political stunt? and fact checking the president's bizarre claims about climate change plflt president, despite what you may believe, the polar ice caps are not growing to new records. good afternoon, everyone. welcome to "the lead." stunning even his colleagues, deputy director mccabe resigned today. president trump asking who he voted for. according to the "washington post." by noon today, mccabe had exited the j edgar hoover building in downtown washington. sources say he had been at the fbi for 22 years and was set to retire in march, had no plans to leave today as of last friday. one source saying he was removed by the trump administration after public pressure by the presi

other big story is the threat of resignation from the fbi director christopher wray. we learned that wray was on the brink of quitting after pressure from deputies, that pressure coming from attorney general jeff sessions himself, former fbi director james comey weighed in on this late-breaking development tweeting, among other things, quote, good to read reports of people standing up for what they believe in. meanwhile press secretary sarah sanders said this morning that the president has full confidence in director wray at the fbi. our crime investigator is following the story for us. what more can you tell us about how close the new fbi director actually came to quitting? >> well, wolf, certainly it was a big concern and came close enough to the point where it appears, at least reportedly, that sessions backed off of the demands. now, these demands that he fire andrew mccabe or reassign andrew mccabe coming from sessions, it's been reported possibly from the president putting pressure on sessions to have the current fbi director make changes at the fbi to sort of clear the field t

will come to order. the subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony from the fbi, the department of homeland security and the department of state on federal coordination and information-sharing vital to dismantling transnational criminal organizations. i would like to welcome the members of the subcommittee and express my appreciation to the witnesses for being here today. the chair now recognizes himself for an opening statement for which i will deliver mr. king's opening statement. law enforcement officers use many weapons to fight terrorism and crime on our streets. some of these weapons such as badges, guns and squad cars are easy to see. they are the hallmarks of police work. there are other weapons, however, that are harder to identify but every bit as vital. among these less visible weapons, access to timely and accurate information is often times the difference between a successful investigation and an unsolved crime. in today's threat environment, much of the information needed by law enforcement in the united states is generated overseas. this is particularly true when

crime scene. mike flynn's west wing office, the place where he lied to the fbi about his contacts with russians, a crime he pleaded guilty to last year in bob mueller special counsel's investigation. missing pieces of the time line to mike flynn's fbi and the way the white house learned about it writing, quote, white house counsel don mcgahn was the first senior official to learn of flynn's interview during a meeting on january 26 with acting attorney general sally yates in which she warned him that flynn had lied to vice-president mike pence and other top trump officials about his conversation with the russian ambassador, sergey kislyak, and could be vulnerable to blackmail by the russian government. mcgahn briefed trump, bannon and white house chief of staff reince priebus on his meeting with yates that same day, including news of flynn's fbi interview. people familiar with the matter said. it is important to remind everyone that it was january 27th, the very next day, that donald trump invited then fbi director jim comey to dinner. a rare gesture for any sitting president. but

damaging the fbi and the department of justice. >> this is "new day" with chris cuomo and alisyn camerota. >> all right. it's wednesday. you know what that means. >> what? you're exhausted. >> not coffee. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. this is "new day". it is wednesday, january 24th. 6:00 here in new york. this is what we have on the starting line. significant developments in the russia investigation. first, sources telling cnn special counsel bob mueller wants to question president trump about his decisions to fire fbi director jim comey and national security adviser michael flynn. also, we're learning mueller's team has already interviewed comey, attorney general jeff sessions, and hope hicks, key presidential adviser. what does all of this reveal about the direction of mueller's investigation and a possible end game. >>> the "washington post" reports that shortly after firing fbi director comey, president trump, quote, pointedly asked acting fbi director, andrew mccabe, in an oval office building who he voted for. he said he did not vote but

fbi. the fbi's own history, if you go on their website, they have a pretty long narrative description of their history. they link the creation of an fbi to the progressive movement that is active in that period of time at the turn of the century. the progressive movement, it's the belief that the federal government must intervene to foster justice in an industrial society. a response to the sort of labor, unrest that we've talked about in previous classes and everything that inspires that terrible working conditions and so forth. the progressive movement inspires things like the fda to ensure that the food you're getting has labels on what you're eating is what you're think you're eating. right. it'll eventually things to child labor laws. also, then, create this sort of nationwide law enforcement body that is able to keep tabs on criminals throughout the country. it did not exist prior to this period of time. the fbi's history explains, again, this creation based on the need for professional law enforcement agency and the face of labor conflict. arrives in violent crime a

breaking news here in washington. the fbi director andrew mccabe is stepping down effective today. we are joined with details. shema, we knew andrew mccabe planned on leaving soon, but it's a bit sooner than we originally thought. what do you think? >> yes, it is, wolf. we were not expecting this today. we've been reporting and we were told he at least planned to stay until march. what we're learning is that at some point this morning, the fbi director, christopher wray, brought in his executive team, told them that the now former deputy director andrew mccabe was leaving and that he would be leaving effective noon today, so that's about an hour ago, and that they have appointed a new acting deputy director. his name is dave boudage. we are told he left the building around noon or so when his retirement sort of took effect. he is no longer the acting deputy -- he's no longer the deputy director of the fbi, wolf. >> we know that andrew mccabe had been under a lot of fire in the white house directly from the president, a lot of republicans. they pointed to him with bias in the overall r

and the fbi. that is a deeply regrettable state of affairs >> the nunes memo will come out. i want to give you context here. the republican memo was written for the chairman of the committee devin nunes. shocking facts he just allegedly uncovered about the russian investigation. facts we later found out he had just gotten from the white house. the white house he claimed he had to rush to to brief them on facts they already had. it amounted to a smoke screen. democrats say that is what today's memo is about today. that brings us to tonight's other breaking story. andrew mccabe is out. you have heard his name before because the president has singled him out for criticism. the kind of public service he targeted the ones investigating him. why did mccabe abruptly leave his job? some describing as a mutual decision and some saying he was forced out. he becomes eligible for full benefits on the 18th of march. so in some ways although the precise timing took official washington by surprise, the fact that it happened was not a shock. >> say definitively that the president did not play a ro

the director of the fbi to appear personally and explain why releasing the memo is not a good idea. they ignored that and voted along party lines to release the memo. they also voted not to release a memo written by democrats which they say point out the falsehoods on the republican memo. >> we had votes today to politicize the intelligence process, to prohibit the fbi and the department of justice from expressing their concerns to the committee and the house and to selectedly release only the majorities distorted memo without the full facts. a very sad day, i think, in the history of this committee. as i said to my committee colleagues during this hearing, sadly we can fully expect that the president of the united states will not put the national interest over his own personal interest. but it is a sad day indeed when that is also true of our own committee, because today this committee voted to put the president's personal interest perhaps their own political interest above the national interest. in denying themselves even the ability to hear from the department and the fbi, and t

time to declare war against the deep state and clear out the rot in the upper levels of the fbi and the justice department. yes, i said the rot. the fbi and the doj have broken the public trees by destroying evidence, defying oversight and actively trying to bring down the trump presidency. tonight there are new concerns that anti-trump fbi officials formed even a secret society at the fbi to subvert the president after his election. that's according to do republican lawmakers who have seen some of the thousands of texts between the fbi's peter struck and lisa paige. >> the day after the election, the day after what they really, really didn't want to have happen, there's a text exchange between these two fbi agents, these two supposed to be objective fak centered fbi agents saying perhaps this is the first meeting of the secret society. so of course i'm going to want to know what secret society are you talking about because you're supposed to be investigating objectively the person who just won the electoral college. yeah, i'm going to want to know. lou: our first guest tonight is c

, the fbi urging the white house tonight not to release a secret memo reportedly critical of the agency. the fbi citing grave concerns. and this moment, audio of the president late last night, what he said about releasing that memo. >>> the deadly flu, and tonight, the new concern here over the supply of that rapid test used to diagnose patients. and tonight, word of a young mother of four from new hampshire, one of the newest victims. >>> the arrest, a student at virginia tech. authorities said he had an assault rifle and was trying to get thousands of rounds of ammunition. what else he was looking for. >>> the drowning danger. tonight, americans on vacation, nine drownings in less than two weeks in the same area. >>> and the deadly crash. the former nba player and a former "american idol" contestant who did not survive. >>> good evening. and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy wednesday night. and we begin with that deadly train collision, onboard, more than 100 republican members of congress. that amtrak train was taking those lawmakers to a retreat, colliding with a g

the fbi, led by california republican congressman devon nunez to try to create alternate scandals that the white house likes better. devon nunes is the guy behind the "they wire tapped trump tower" allegation. he's the guy who tried to make it into an unmasking scandal. susan rice is the real scandal here. devon nunes says the real scandal is uranium one. he's leading the charge against all the senior leadership of the fbi somehow being corrupt and terrible. over the past week, that congressman, devon nunes has led a conservative media and republican full-scale, freakout over a memo. a memo that conservatives insist will be magic antidote to the robert mueller investigation and a get out of jail free card for anybody implicated by the mueller investigation. this was written by devon nunes himself. his office wrote it and he and republicans and conservative media and lots and lots of russian bots online are all now insisting with increasing ferocity that this memo that devon nunes wrote, it must be released, even though it contains classified information, because if this memo is release

. i made a secondary motion that prior to the public release of either memoranda, that the fbi and the department of justice have the opportunity to come and brief the entire house in a classified session on both memoranda, on the underlying facts or materials so that the committee could make a responsible judgment as to whether the memoranda should be made public. that motion was voted down by the majority. the majority expressed concern that something in the minority memoranda or otherwise could compromise sources and methods. for exactly that reason we asked that both memoranda be vetted but that was voted down. i spoke to the director of the fbi earlier this afternoon. he expressed strong interest in being able to brief our committee prior to any release of these materials about concerns that the bureau and the department have. i relayed that interest by the director of the fbi to the appointee of president trump. they were not willing to meet with the director of the fbi to hear the bureau's concerns. instead, they voted against allowing their own members, as well as the membe

. it's 5:00 in new york city and this is "the five" ." fbi still front and center as new alarms are raised on capitol hill. senate homeland security chair ron johnson has learned of an anti-trump secret society within the bureau attended by top level employees. >> i have heard from somebody was talk to our committee that there is a group of individuals in the fbi that were holding secret off-site meetings. >> is that half a dozen? what's the number? >> i can't really put a number on it. more than just strzok and page. they were very high level within the fbi. peter strzok's title was deputy executive director of the counterintelligence division. these are not low-level underlings. they had access to the highest level, including the director of the fbi. >> jesse: the revolutions came through light through text messages between former special counsel investigators peter strzok and lisa page. the texts raise questions about jim comey's testimony to congress about the clinton investigation. john ratcliffe says comey could be called again to testify about inconsistencies. >> he said no d

explosive report about the fbi's corrupt clinton email investigation. we have that exclusive report. and president trump's 2017 successes have now created a republican blueprint for the midterms. will they follow? and last year was an epic failure for fake news in this country, especially the fake cannabis newsec network. we'll explain all that. but first,, tonight's breaking news opening monologue for the new year. ♪ >> sean: despite vicious media attacks and many political obstacles, 2017 was a very successfull first year for president trump. now, before we get to the full list that the media will never show you, let's take a look at the economy. stock market is at an all-time high. and hit over 60 record closes in 2017 alone. the dow jones was up 25%, over five trillion dollars in new wealth has now been created.n unemployment. yes, unemployment at a 17-year low sits at just 4.1%. since taking office,e, president trump has created 1.7 million new jobs. african-american unemployment, a 17-year low. we ended the year with consumer confidence sitting at a 17-year high. home prices

, cooperation. >> that served as the basis for the fbi investigation. that's how the fbi investigation came into being. the fbi investigation not just into russian interference but the possibility of the trump campaign being involved in it, cooperating in that effort somehow. that is is how that fbi investigation started, right? u.s. intelligence obtained information, obtained intel about suspicious contacts between the trump campaign and russia. while russia was trying to influence the election to trump's benefit. fbi john bennen testiro brenhamt that. that's how and why that investigate started. basically why we are going through this as a country. that's the best information and most direct information we got about what the intelligence community saw that freaked them out about the trump campaign. >> i encountered and am aware of information and intelligence that revealed contacts and interactions between russian officials and u.s. persons involved in the trump campaign that i was concerned about because of known russian efforts to support such individuals and it raised questions in my m

senior fbi official that president trump has been attacking just announced he is stepping down. the white house formally denying involvement but the "new york times" already reporting early this evening that the pressure came from donald trump's appointee to replace jim comey. now here is why this matters. bob mueller's working his way up the trump chart pushing for an interview with the president himself. at this time we are seeing a series of stories breaking about trump trying to pressure or purge every key law enforcement leader around mueller. take rod rosenstein, his supervisor and jeff sessions who recused from russia and now tonight andrew mccabe stepping down and that order to fire mueller himself which leaked out last night but was aborted when trump's lawyer threatened to resign over it, and all this comes in the wake of the purge that led to the firing of comey. new details emerging about what donald trump said to comey's deputy who's leaving tonight after comey took what you see on the screen right now. boarding that fateful plane ride. trump saw that footage of comey b

you know why? because trump wants to keep talking about the fbi and his allies do on the hill, too. the folks who are running the campaign this year, the republicans thought about taxes, it's disappeared. that's bad news for them. >> bad news for them. thanks for joining us on "inside politics." a little breaking news is always good. hope you like the new set. "wolf" starts right now. >>> hello, i'm wolf blitzer, 1:00 p.m. in washington, 7:00 p.m. in davos, switzerland, 9:00 p.m. in moscow. wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us. >>> negotiations under way. the president's legal team trying to clean up his vow to testify under oath with robert mueller as the president comes up with a new definition for obstruction of justice. >>> plus, the secret society theory falling apart quickly. why the republican efforts to undermine the robert mueller investigation may in part be based on a text message that was made in jest. >>> and the u.s. says the palestinian leadership has insulted president trump and the united states, and now the president is i

versus the fbi. >> tonight the president's scoreched earth campaign against the fbi. why some republicans are circling the wagons with conspiracy theories. >> when struck and page described the secret society, that doesn't surprise me. >> and why did he wait two days to tell investigators. >> and one the most interesting man in politics might be about to prove our point again. this is "mtp daily" and it starts right now. ♪ ♪ >>> good evening. i'm chuck todd here in washington. welcome to "mtp daily." trump won the popular vote. obama was born in kenya. ted ted cruz's father was involved in the kennedy assassination and the nod is state. you are called a conspiracy theorist or the president of the united states. the president attempt to destroy the fbi credibility on the russia probe and the elected republicans who appear to be helping him do it and frankly in some cases you would think know better. mr. trump fired the fbi director last year after allegedly asking him to pledge his loyalty. and as the wash post now reports, that he then quickly summoned the fbi acting director andrew m

. it's 4:00 in new york. the gop war on the fbi is being waged today against the backdrop of a day tautant with russia. "washington post" reporting, "the trump administration under fire from lawmakers for not punishing moscow over election meddling said monday it will not implement russia-related sanctions mandated by congress last year because the threat, itself, is acting as a deterrent." a deterrent of what? donald trump's own cia director, now concedes that russia remains committed to meddling in american elections. but it's the gop war on justice that's generating the most upheaval and drama this hour. speaker paul ryan in remarks today about last night's party-line vote to release a memo crafted by house intel committee chairman devin nunes and his staff, a move that the trump-run justice department deemed, quote, extraordinarily reckless, said this. >> there may have been malfeasance at the fbi by certain individuals. so it is our job in conducting transparent oversight of the executive branch to get to the bottom of that. sunshine is the best disinfectant. what we want is a

over now to brianna keeler but also in "the situation room." >>> the fbi director clashes with the man who hired him, president trump. the fbi says it has grave concerns about the accuracy of that memo which the president has vowed to release. >>> my team of the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein asked the president for help in resisting the house intel chairman, the man behind the memo. instead, the president asked rosenstein if he is on his team. is this another loyalty request? >>> train wreck. one person is dead after a train carrying republican members of congress to a retreat hits a fluk rural virginia. what caused the fatal collision? and stormy denial. new questions about a porn star's latest denial? a written statement with denies the alleged affair. did she sign that statement? wolf blitzer is off. i'm in "the situation room." >>> we are tracking major new development that's may weigh heavily in the special counsel's russia investigation raising new questions about a possible obstruction of justice. in a stunning and rare statement, the fbi says it has grave concerns

counsel has interviewed former fbi director jim comey about his memos. those memos were contemporaneous notes that he has testified under oath to have taken after every single interaction with donald trump. these twin developments are reigniting speculation in washington, d.c., today about bob mueller focusing in on potential obstruction of justice by the president and his associates. something jim comey was asked about under oath. >> i don't think it's for me to say whether the conversation i had with the president was an effort to obstruct. i took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning. that's the conclusion i'm sure the special counsel will work toward to try to understand what the intention was there and whether that's an offense. >> in his interview with lester holt on nbc, the president said, i had dinner with him, he wanted to have dinner because he wanted to stay on. is this an accurate statement? >> no, sir. >> the president said in one case, i called him, and in one with case, he called many eed . is that an accurate statement? >> no. >> the president was asked whether

department of justice. fox news has confirmed the fbi and federal prosecutors are investigating allegations of pay to play corruption at the clinton foundation. specifically investigators are looking into whether foundation donors were illegally given preference and access to hillary clinton while she was secretary of state. tonight i'll talk with one of the republican lawmakers who has been calling for months for a second special counsel to investigate the clinton scandals. congressman matt gates joins us >>> also tonight, two republican senators calling for the fbi to pursue a criminal investigation of christopher steele. he's the author of the democratic funded and discredited trump dossier. senators chuck grassley and lindsey graham say they have evidence that steele lied to the fbi >>> and president trump tonight at camp david for two days of meetings with republican leaders. they'll be mapping out their 2018 strategy and talking over their political priorities for the year. we'll take up those presumed strategies and likely priorities with commentator and best selling auth

it's dodge and trash and anything associated discredits the fbi if they use the dossier at all to start the investigation, here is the guys that paid for the work that led to the dossier saying actually, we know better than anybody what's in there and stand by it and then giving ten hours initially of sworn testimony to back that up. wouldn't you want to see what they had to say to back it up? when we first found out there was a transcript and fusion would be okay with it being released, obviously, we wanted to see what testimony they were able to give to support these claims. well, we still haven't seen those ten hours of transcripts, nor have we seen transcripts from the republican led committees where fusion has been called in to testify. tonight, fusion is calling for those to be released and they are putting icing on the cake. quote, we walked investigators in these congressional hearing, we walked investigators through our year-long effort to decipher mr. trump's complex business past of which the steele dossier is but one chapter. republicans are refused to release full transcrip