officials in the oval office where he told them, quote, i just fired the head of the fbi, he was crazy, a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. that was may 10th, the day after the president fired mr. comey. the following day, may 11th, president trump told nbc's lesser holt what he had foremosthis miforemos foremost in his mind when who fired mr. comey was the russian investigation. if the president fired the fbi because it was a tuesday or because he just decided he likes a lot of turnover in national security jobs or just because james comey rubbed him the wrong way for no meaningful reason, that would basically be fine. legally the president can fire presidential appointees without anybody telling him that he can't. if, however, the president fired mr. comey because of the russia investigation, because he wanted to influence an ongoing fbi investigation into him and his campaign that comey was overseeing as fbi director, well, that might be obstruction of justice. criminal liability here hinges on intent, evidence of the president's intent in that f

. but first my opening statement. don't you love it when arrogant e eco maniacs are hoisted? fbi director james comey and deputy director andrew mccabe now know the pain. the department of justice is investigating andrew mccabe now after an obama appointed ig made a criminal referral. and pompous cardinal comey is now being investigated for leaking classified information. and comey's memos were released this week and they were supposed to lay out the real reason for his firing. that donald trump was colluding with the russians and donald trump was looking to obstruct justice. well, unfortunately, for the democrats and the mainstream media, they proved just the opposite. and they go against virtually everything that comey has said about trump. now because he didn't trust the president, comey made notes of his presidential meetings. the memos were written contemporaneous with the meetings, one within five minutes of the meeting. contemporaneous notes carry great weight because they're made almost immediately after the event when the memory is fresh. but unfortunately for jim comey,

evidence of pervasive corruption at the highest levels of the obama fbi and justice department. the justice department inspector general today released his report on fired former at the eid deputy director andrew mccabe and the inspector general's report confirms that mccabe lied not once but four times to his superiors and to investigators about his leaks to the media. we will have the full report for you here in moments. also tonight top republicans demanding answers from the department of justice on disgraced at the eid director james comey. judiciary chairman bob goodlatte oversight chairman trey gowdy and intel chairman devin nunes have asked the department to provide them with copies of comey's memos about his conversations with the president and they want those memos by monday. expectations are rising that president trump may be nearing a decision to fire deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for his endless conflicts of interest, his stonewalling of congress and for allowing special counsel robert mueller free rein to pursue an 11 month witchhunt against the president which

play the role. >> details of mullers probe are a closely guarded secret. the then fbi director describes his hard line on leaks to then today show anchor. in 2008. >> i do not count this as leaking. do not think it's appropriate. there are steps that can be taken to raise matters that should be raised to the appropriate level. you do not leak. >> don't leak? >> one does not leak. >> he is probably established security procedures that include polygraph exams for his staff. not because he doesn't trust his staff but rather to be able to say if this leaks, it wasn't my team. >> how much is above the surface and how much is below remains to be seen. i can tell you from experience that typically there's a lot that we don't see. and may never see. >> with so little information circulating, each new development in the investigation is front page news. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort and his business partner richard gates become the first people indicted in the probe in october 2017. the same day, it's also revealed that former trump foreign policy adviser george papadopou

. president trump blasted former fbi director james comey today calling him a liar, a leaker and a man guilty of crimes. at this hour, we are still waiting his arrival to fox here at the washington bureau. we're told he is in traffic. hopefully he is just manipulates away. i will get mr. comey's response to the president's fiery remarks in just a few minutes. but, first, the other news of the day, president trump is standing by his men. despite dr. ronny jackson withdrawing his name from consideration as the next v.a. secretary following democratic-led firestorm misconduct allegations and e.p.a. chief scott pruitt getting hammered over spending by lawmakers on capitol hill and for the first time today the president himself appearing to admit to fox news that michael cohen helped him with the stormy daniels situation. all of that on this day. chief white house correspondent john roberts falling all the developments as he does from the north lawn of the white house. good evening, john. >> bret, good evening to you. let's start first of all with dr. ronnie jackson. to hear the white house tell i

just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. i faced great pressure because of russia. that's taken off. that was may 10th, the day after the president fired mr. comey. the following day, may 11th, president trump told lester holt what was foremost in his mind when he fired james comey was the russia investigation. legally the president can fire presidential appointees without anybody telling him that he can't. if, however, the president fired mr. comey because of the russia investigation, because he wanted to influence an ongoing investigation into him and his campaign that comey was overseeing as fbi director, well, that might be obstruction of justice. criminal liability here hinges on intent, evidence of the president's intent in that firing. that's everything. so the 9th comey is fire, the 10th the president tells russians firing him will take off great pressure because of russia, he tells nbc news he's thinking about the russia investigation when he fires the man, all potentially evidence of intent. enough to sink the president on that? doesn't know. b the

creates to work on the department of justice. 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 the fbi to a progressive movement. the progressive movement inspires things like the fda to ensure the food has labels and what you're eating is what you think. it will lead to things like child labor laws but it will also create this nation wide law enforcement body that's able to keep tabs on criminals tlouts the country that did not exist prior to this period and time. all of that accompanying urbanization at the turn of the century as well as national security concerns. the fbi makes its first efforts to infiltrate political organizations in 1909. by the mid 1910s they are investigating anti-militant groups. over the years the fbi will spy an a variety of organizations. the american council of churches, the american jewish congress. the nation wide labor federation, the afl-cio. the national association for the advancement of colored people. the new orleans women's center. the american's friends servic

stories. deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and fbi director christopher wray have finally responded to congressional demands of oversight after threats of impeachment and contempt of congress against them. rosenstein this afternoon decided to permit house republican to actually look at the two-page memo authored by anti-trump peter strzok that was the pretext of the original mandate of the russian collusion probe. but it took eight months of stone walling, the threats of subpoena, contempt of congress and impeachment to get to this point. congressman matt gates says rosen sphien should be fired for his corrupt behavior. e joins us here tonight. >>> also, russia's navy responding to the president's warning that u.s. missile wills be heading to syria. 11 russian ships reportedly leaving a port in syria on the move. we take up the potential for confrontation tonight with general jack keane. >>> and paul ryan says he will finally retire after months of obstructing and subverting the trump administration. what will pelosi and schumer do without their strongest ally in the repub

cohen had his office and his home raided by the fbi. multiple news outlets report at least one focus of the search warrant they executed was for information related to that stormy daniels agreement and that $130,000 payment that cohen says he made to stormy daniels. today we learned that stormy daniels is herself cooperating with federal investigators, as they look into that agreement and that payment. so if this thing is no longer a dispute between private parties, if federal prosecutors are now involved in assessing potential criminal behavior implicated by that agreement and one party to that agreement is cooperating with federal prosecutors in that investigation, then it's worth understanding whether it's only the president's lawyer, michael cohen, who's in trouble for that agreement or whether that trouble might extend to the president himself. and so my question. in that agreement you might remember that a pseudonym is used for both parties to the agreement. stormy daniels for her part in the agreement, she agrees not to talk about her alleged affair with the president in excha

the special counsel and fbi for 22 months in a row and not so much of an iota of evidence is introduced against him. and make no mistake. they are desperate and. mcdonnal and ryan and tillis working against him and for the money masters on k street seeking to protect special counsel robert mueller and preserve at all costs his failed investigation. congressman ron desantos pushed for mueller's firing for months. rod rosenstein making a mockery of the judicial system and president trump firing back at the unprecedented raid on the new york office and resident of his personal attorney michael cohen. attorney/client privilege is dead and a total witch hunt. the new york times reported deputy attorney general rod rosenstein personally approved the fbi raid and federal prosecutors received a referral in part from robert mueller. this is the same rod rosenstein who believes he can oversee the investigation of firing of comey even though rosenstein recommended trump fired comey. and same who signed off on fisa clerk warrants that resulted in the obama administration spying on the tr

with mueller after 9/11. the mayor of new york and mueller was the head of the fbi. at the time. but i think that whole we have a relationship and we get along can be over done. because a lot of people have worked with mull over the years. >> he said today that when she pushed him on a tame frame he said a couple weeks. does it seem he'll be on the legal team long term? >> no. it doesn't. he's taking the lead from his firm. there's some sense that he will go in and going to be the new yorker and say okay put all your cards on the table here. let us know what's going on. let us know what we have to do and miraclously the mueller team will answer his questions. and say okay here's where we are and this will be done in three weeks. >> do you know whom approached whom? he's a friend of the president. spoke out very -- when few people after the access hollywood tape would speak out. he went out. >> they're good friends. he recently visited mar-a-lago. at one point he was being discussed as attorney general. if you'll recall. secretary of state. sdp none of that ever happened. so i think t

pushing jeff sessions to launch investigations into former fbi director james comey, attorney general loretta lynch and hillary clinton. the gop lawmakers are accusing the group of lies, cover-ups and corruption in order to sink trump's president candidacy. >> it talks about comey and particularly in the case of the former fbi direct year the says 17 witnesses have not been interviewed yet, and hillary clinton had not been under viewed when the decision that no charges would be filed. >> remember he testified to the congress that he did not make any decision regarding secretary clinton until after she was interviewed. he was asked that specifically by one of my colleagues. yet the evidence that came out since then demonstrates they made this determination months before not only under viewing secretary clinton, but also interviewing a number of key witnesses. a lack of candor with the congress is something that needs to be investigated. >> several of the house members called for a special counsel to look into the former secretary of state hillary clinton. in clinton's case it talks abo

extraordinary it is to hear the man who was the fbi director saying that the current president's words are an attack on america. i mean that's not -- i don't think that's happened. >> i never -- you ask me three years ago ten years ago ever be coming out of my mouth? of course not. but it's happening. the president of the united states is attacking the justice department, attacking the fbi, the federal judiciary and pronouncing private citizens accused of no crime should be in jail. pause for a second and reflect on that. no matter the political orientation. that's not normal. that is an attack on our core values. and if should stop. and everybody should call on it to stop. >> former director james comey. thank you very much. thank you very much i appreciate it thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> fresht it. thank you. . chris cuomo starts right now. [ applause ] >>> all right. there you have it plaus for the former fbi director james comey. we saw him put to the test tonight more than we have seen to date. done by you, citizens in attendance at the cnn townhall. comey, force

tweet storm. as a prosecutor and director of the fbi, james comey says he held himself to the highest standard of integrity, only to be attacked by a president and by both sides of the aisle. now he is finally responding in his own words, and on his own terms. >> so comey's book is out. they can't shut him up. >> comey says the president lives in a cocoon of alternative reality. >> he's a washington insider with inside information. >> before the president fired him from the fbi last year, fbi director james comey made a habit of writing down, in detail, what happened between him and the president. >> an embattled public servant with a principled streak. >> i know already that this is the best job i have ever had and will ever have. a front row seat to watch the work of a remarkable group of people who serve this country. >> taking heat from both political parties. >> jim comey has managed to irritate, offend, republicans, democrats, independents, lib retaliat erals, radicals. >> the head of the fbi dropped a bomb in the race for president this afternoon. >> and challenging the

president trump? you have said it's possible. it's possible. which is not a very fbi director answer, don't you think? >> i think it's an honest and calibrated answer. i hope that's a fbi -- i'm not the fbi director but i hope that's a fbi director type answer. >> when you gave the press conference about hillary clinton in 2016 in the summer you said you didn't say she didn't lie. or you didn't say it's possible she lied. you said you found no evidence she had lied. you found no evidence that she had that e-mail server knowing that it was improper. but you're not using the same construct of there is evidence or there isn't evidence. you're saying it's possible that leaves the impression for people that there might be stuff out there that there might be evidence that president trump is under the thumb of the kremlin. >> yeah, but i see that, jake, asking me two different things. i'm not going to talk about the investigation of possible cooperation between americans and the russian effort to influence our election. what you asked me about now is why did i say what i said whether

took time to return a few shots again fired fbi director james comey. and his shameless revenge book tour. president trump accusing comey of quote, committing many crimes,ly are t -- lying to con, leaking classified information, congressman andy big said that comey's profit seeking tour just solidifies why president trump fired him. and the justice department, calls to turnover james comey memos with president trump has now passed. so far the justice department is once again stonewall congress. and refused to turnover the documents. we'll have the full report and discuss deep state forces that be on truck the -- obstruct the president, now poll show that democratic forecast of a so-called blue wave sweeping over midterms may have been optimistic, with latest polling showing they are hotly and closely contested. dems losing 75% of the midterm support since january in polling. all because of president trump's soaring economy and his american first agenda. and yes, president trump's personal improving poll numbers, that is much more right here tonight. >> our top story, the james comey

everyone. our top story tonight james comey expose. former fbi director james comey saying he shared his infamous memos with more people than previously thought. three individuals think he illegally leaked classified memos but no mention of that. when he testified under oath last june but also tonight attorney general jeff sessions will review a second special counsel to investigate. >> i do not think we need to willy-nilly appoint special counsel. there is wrongdoing uncovered we will act on that. we have to be careful we don't smear everybody. if somebody makes some errors and some of the errors can be disciplinary matters rather than prosecutorial matters. trish: congressman matt gaetz is one of more than a dozen house republicans who say there is more than enough evidence right now of wrongdoing to appoint a second special counsel and we ought to be doing it. he joins me in just moments in the senate confirming mike pompeo a secretary of state to the former cia director playing a pivotal role ahead of a highly anticipated summit between president trump and kim jong un. we take al

the department of justice to stop the stone wall and obstruction. fired fbi director james comey on his book tour today playing the victim and not happy with the prospect of consequences for lying and leaking. the president talking about some of those consequences. comey avowts some of trump's assertions he could be jailed not normal. not normal? pretty basic. judicial watch suing for comey documents. and president trump revealing his administration is holding high-level talks with north korea about the prospect of talks between the president and kim jong-un. president trump says those negotiations will determine whether he meets kim. >> we'll probably be, depending on various meetings and conversations we'll be having meetings with kim jong-un very soon. it will be taking place probably in early june or before that. assuming things go well. it's possible things won't dough well and we'll just have the meetings and we go along the strong path we have taken. lou: north korea set to the dominate what will be two days of talks between president trump and the japanese prime minister shi

which we view of this entire matter. i am pleased to know that the fbi is investigating this case. i am shocked to learn that the white house through its official spokesperson deems unworthy of notice of blatant act of political espionage. two of the intruders had the name and phone number of another ex-cia agent. he says he knows more than he's telling and he feel he's on the right track in suing the commit teal as a co-conspirator with the five men. >> right after the watergate burglary happened, right away the dnc filed a civil lawsuit against the committee to reelect the president saying that was not some random burglars. their lawsuit basically says hey, president nixon, you did this and your campaign did this. he has to answer for it. on nbc news, people thought they were a little bit nuts for doing this and saying this is some conspiracy that went all the way to nixon. to people at the time it seemed over the top. >> the democratic party blames the republicans for sending five men to burglarize or bug its national headquarters, it is suing for $1 million. >> if it works, if they

not convinced the former fbi director jim comey's involvement in the attempted coup from within our own government of the duly elected winner of the 2016 presidential election, i have just one question for you. are you stupid? look, you don't have to buy his book or argue with our liberal friend assuming you still have any left. just listen up. comey's book tour was supposed to convince us he is an honorable, likeable, descent man doing his darnedest to protect the american people and the nation. comey would hit the trail, the bookstores and the tv studios making clear when he was the top of the perch at the fbi, he did everything right. unfortunately for jim, it didn't quite work out as planned. in fact the man is in real legal jeopardy with his leaks being investigated by the justice department. not that i have any faith in sessions and company that they will ever do anything of consequence regarding this fiasco. but last week you remember i told you there was nothing, zilch, zero, nada in comey's two-page memo of his meeting with the president that in any way, shape or form that

weighing military action against syria the fbi takes action against his personal attorney and president trump lashes out big-time. at the fbi, his own attorney gener general, his departmenty attorney general, the russia investigation and the man who's running it. fbi agents raided michael cohen's office and hotel room, and now robert mueller's job may be in jeopardy. that's what a source tells us. and that's what the president also told us tonight during a moment with reporters unlike any the country has seen until now. >> why don't you fire mueller? >> why don't i just fire mueller? >> just fire the guy. >> i think it is a disgrace what is going on. we'll see what happens. but i think it's a sad situation when you look at what happened. and many people said you should fire him. again, they found nothing. and in finding nothing, you know, that's a big statement. if you know, the person who's in charge of the investigation, you know all about that, deputy rosenstein, rod rosenstein, he wrote the letter, very critical of comey. one of the things i said i fired comey. well, i turned out to

break that hour. the ig report came out. >> from the fbi about -- >> cohen in court. new information on what was seized. >> the bradentony. >> bradentony stuff. playboy playmate. >> and then there is sarah huckabee sanders. >> let's listen to sarah huckabee sanders for a minute while we collect our thoughts. >> memorial on the ellipse it is a moving experience. president trump and the first lady encourage you to visit the memorial before it leaves washington, d.c. on april 18th. today at the summit of the americans in lima peru vooi ivanka trump oversees private corporate investigation and opec -- -- which will mobilize $500 million in private capital to invest in projects that empower women in latin american. this initiative will break down barriers for women this the economy and eaffirms the trump administration he is commitment to empowering women in latin make and around the globe. as you all saw yesterday's confirmation hearing for mike pompeo as secretary of state went very well. from his years in the army to his time in the house intelligence committee to a tenure as cia direc

anger donald trump. according to the associated press, the former fbi director says trump was unethical and untethered to the truth. it also appears that trump's effort to secure comey's loyalty began before the inauguration when he and other top intelligence officials visited trump tower. comey reportedly writes that to him the demand was like sammy the bull's induction ceremony and refers to the forest fire that is the trump presidency. i'm joined now by phil rucker from "the washington post" who has read the book, former watergate prosecutor nick ackerman. phil, let's start with you. you've been burning the midnight oil, reading this book. what stood out to you? >> well, it's a really stunning tell-all. more than 300 pages, and in it, james comey, the fired fbi director, details in vivid scenes all of his conversations with president trump beginning in the transmissiition phase be he became president. comey traveled to trump tower and briefed the president elect one-on-one about the most lewd allegations in that dossier by mr. steele that we've been talking so much about. a

price. should the u.s. be trying to remove him from power? secret recordings. cnn learns the fbi has tapes of talks between president trump's lawyer and the former lawyer for a porn star and a play mate who have claimed afares with donald trump. what does that mean for one of the president's closest confidants? and stormy hearing. a court orders a trump order michael cohen to appear with his client list monday and the lawyer for stormy daniels says she may also show up saying the forecast looks very stormy. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. your in the situation room. >>> president trump calls allied missile strikes on syrian targets perfectly executed and quickly proclaims mission accomplished. at an emergency u.n. security council meeting the u.s. ambassador warns the united states is locked and loaded if syria uses chemical weapons again. >>> and in a cnn exclusive, cnn learned the fbi seized reportings president trump eegs lawyer made of conversations with a lawyer who represented a porn star and a play mate alleging affai

with lies, dishonesty and contradictions? we'll find out tuesday when disgraced fbi director james comey's book, "a higher loyalty, truth, lies and leadership" hits the stands. truth, lies and leadership? really? talks about an oxymoron, you are the ultimate liar. you lied multiple people including congress under oath. and that's a crime. truth, you refused to follow the law causing both republicans and democrats to call for your head. and leadership? you violated the rules of your own agency by leaking classified information to a friend to threect "new york times." you went along with loretta lynch's false narrative that hillary's case was a matter, not an investigation. and get ready for a knife fight between jim comey and loretta lynch on both that as well as that tarmac charade. jim, you repeatedly have proven your inability to runt fbi in a non-political way. you stayed silent as the "new york times" retracted the story that hillary clinton's fbi review was a security referral, not criminal referral pass if the fbi is a security company installing locks in people's homes. you

h. fbi today raiding office. home and hotel room of president trump's long time personal attorney michael cohen. following a referral from the special counsel robert mueller. federal agents seized, e-mails attacks documents, business records related to a number of issues, including perhaps payments from cohen on porn star stormy daniels. we have been told privilege communication between cohen and his client. cohen's attorney blasting raid. we take up what president trump has called mueller witch-hunt with judicial watch president tom. and attorneys. also tonight, an obstruc obstrut and insulting response. doj appointing a federal prosecutor to oversee release of fbi documents about clinton e-mail probe and fisa court abuses, 5 months after house judiciary committee, and house oversight committee demanded access to 1.2 million documents, they have received approximately 7,000 to date. half of which were delivered today. our top story, outraged the word of the day. mounting evidence of a corrupt justice department leadership. an fbi that is been out of control for years. and preside

republican law makers filed against the clenton. and law makers want the justice department and fbi to open criminal investigations on james comey and andrew mccabe and loretta lynch and former secretary of state hillary clinton. and among the issues obama administration's handling of the information. congressman matt ghats who joins us here tonight and also james comey resorting to playing the victim as he tries to cash in with his self involved book tour. comey lamenting today it is painful, painful to relive his time in the fbi and he's physically drained by all of the work that goes into promoting his book. comments like these may be part of the reason that president trump calls comey the worst fbi director in history and president trump just moments ago, wrapping up his new's conference with japanese prime minister. they discuss the summit between president trump and kim jong-un and revelation that cia director mike pompeo travelled to north korea to meet with and i am establish a framework for the president and kim to hold a summit as soon as june. all of this is here tonight. a

breaking news of james comey and the department of justice, we have with us today the former fbi director and the author of his new book "a higher loyalty: truth, lies and leadership," james comey, welcome to "the lead." thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> cnn breaking the story the justice department inspector general sending a criminal referral to the u.s. attorney in d.c. regarding your former deputy andrew mccabe after a report concluding he lied to investigators and to you about a leak to "the wall street journal" in which he confirmed or had people leak to "the wall street journal" confirming the existence of investigation boo the clinton foundation. if they bring a case against andrew mccabe, would you be a witness for the prosecution? >> potentially. i don't know if the reporting is accurately. i know cnn reporting but sure. given that the ig's report reflects interactions of andy mccabe with me and others i could well be a witness. >> you express a lot of horror in the book when public officials or even celebrities lie to investigators whether david petraeus or --

include his intent to fire former fbi director james comey, his role in the crafting of a misleading public statement on the nature of a june 2016 trump tower meeting between his son and russians, trump's dangling of pardons before grand jury witnesses who might testify against him, and trump pressuring attorney general jeff sessions not to recuse himself from the russia investigation. those are the four areas of findings that mueller is said to have collected. quote, mueller would then likely send a confidential report to deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who's overseeing the russia investigation. rosenstein could then decide whether to make the report public and send its findings to congress. from then, congress would then decide whether to begin impeachment proceedings against the president. okay, so, we previously had had reports that mueller was planning on making some kind of report about his findings on the president and on criminal obstruction of justice. well, now what nbc news is reporting tonight is that mueller has arrived at least four findings on the president and

his lawyer made with the porn star, stormy daniels. he had his office and home raided by the fbi, multiple news outlets reeport that one focus was for information related to that stormy daniels' agreement and $130,000 payment that cohen says he made to stormy daniels. today we learned stormy daniels is herself cooperating with federal investigators as they look into that agreement and payment. if this is no longer a dispute between private parties and they're now involved, federal prosecutors and one party to that agreement is cooperating in that investigation, thenuts are rr worth understanding whether it's only the president's lawyer, michael cohen who's in trouble for that agreement. or whether that trouble might extend to the president himself. and so my question. in that agreement you might remember that a pseudonym is used for both parts of the agreement. for stormy daniels, she agreed not to talk for $130,000. she's called peggy peterson. donald trump also has a pseudonym in this agreement. he's called david dennison. now what does peg a epeterson mean? your guess is as go

the president. fbi officials like andrew mccabe. the former number two who was fired for leaking and of the inspector general at the justice department has sent a criminal referral to the u.s. attorney here in washington saying that mccabe tried to cover all of that up by lying to the fbi's own investigators. mccabe says tonight he believes he will be vindicated, but it's worth noting that former justice department officials are telling us that the fact that the inspector general whose nonpartisan and the justice department sent this out, this criminal referral. it carries a lot of weight and that's why the president tweeted a few moments ago that maybe james comey and andrew mccabe are getting a dose of their own medicine. >> mark: that's pretty amazing news, thanks for that. chris is the executive assistant director of the fbi. he's not one of those who is under criminal referral and tom fitton is the president of judicial watch. tom, this is pretty amazing. we basically got a situation where the director of the fbi it would be the principal witness in the criminal prosecution

"new day". it is monday, april 16th, 6:00 here in new york city. so fired fbi director james comey unloaded on president trump. the president who fired him. now in a new interview, comey said donald trump is morally unfit to be president and a, quote, stain on those around him. comey suggests president trump may have obstructed justice when he asked him to let go of the michael flynn investigation and comey suggests that it is possible that russians have dirt on trump and that can be used as leverage. >> so the president launched a preemptive twitter a attack calling him slippery, not smart, and for the second time, a slime ball. the president's focus split between comey and his long time personal lawyer michael cohen. cohen will be in court today for a hearing in last week's records search. some say that could be a bigger legal threat than the mueller probe. kaitlan collins is live at the white house. another busy day. what are you learning there? >> reporter: well, a stunning interview by the former fbi director last night. if there was any chance this feud between james comey an

former fbi director james comey's explosive interview about president trump, the abc news exclusive content with george that you haven't seen. >> there is a risk i'm blind to how i'm acting don't think so. his complaint about the current chief of staff. >> he intend to resign because he couldn't work for people that would treat people like me in such a dishonorable way. i liken president trump in the book to a forest fire. >> but the white house firing back today. >> this is somebody who is giving a revisionist version of history. the president hardly knew the man. >> "nightline" will be right back. our 3 contestants are all at the big ikea table. who's going to be tonight's winning chef? contestant #1, impressive knife skills. but contestant #2 fights back by using fresh parsley. and, contestant #3 adds a touch of sweetness. sweetie, come eat outside. but it's to hot out there! perfect! make room for the judge! what's your dream? at ikea, we help you live it. make the dream yours. >>> good evening. thank you for joining us. after former fbi director jam comey indictment of presiden

, the former chief of staff to dick cheney was convicted of lying to the fbi and a grand jury back in 2000. during an investigation into who leaked the identity of a cia andtive, valerie plame. with this pardon, the president though did what george w. bush would not do. bush commuted libby's sentence. he did not grant him a pardon. >>> also breaking this hour -- nbc news confirms that deputy attorney general rod rosenstein has told confidants that he is prepared to be fired. what a dichotomy there. as the president launches a public campaign against the doj officials, insiders say rosenstein is fully aware he may soon his lose job and is at peace with the possibility. today i spoke with one trump staffer. that staffer's advice to trump -- do it. that rosenstein is a bad actor and that the justice department is out to get him. while the staffer says the president does want to fire rosenstein, as of now he is being restrained by his counsel. >>> as big as that news could be, the talk of the town right now though is james comey's new book. it paints a devastating portrait of president tr

cohen's name is in the steele dossier. the fbi is trying to verify the entire dossier is true or not. is he vulnerable in the investigation? michael cohen? >> i can't answer that. >> ultimately, you accepted president trump's dinner invitation. you promised honest loyalty. you agreed that michael flynn was a good man. you write that your experience in high school gave you a life long hatred for bullies. do you think president trump is a bully and do you hate him? >> there's things that he does that are inappropriate and some ways like a bully-like behavior. i don't hate donald trump. i don't dislike donald trump. >> you're a person who briefed him about the salacious allegation involving prostitutes. is it not possible that president trump, when he asked for your loyalty, had in his mind, the idea that here's an fbi director, the only fbi director i'm familiar with is j. edgar hoover. isn't it possible that he thought he was asking for your loyalty because he was worried that you were going to drop all this incriminating information that may or may not have been true? >> it's possibl

justice department gives congress memos written by fired fbi director james comey about his most controversial conversations with president trump. and that more. the full interview coming up in this hour. ♪ ♪ ♪ this is what getting your car serviced at lincoln looks like. complementary pickup and delivery servicing now comes with every new lincoln. i won. giving you, the luxury of time. that's the lincoln way. i just need some rest. i'm just worried about the house. and taking care of the boys. [ door slams ] he's still asleep. zach? zach?! [ dog barking ] ♪ [ sighs in relief ] zach! talk to me. it's for the house. i got a job. it's okay. dad took care of us. principal. we can help you plan for that. non-drowsy claritin 24 hour relief when allergies occur. day after day, after day. because life should have more wishes and less worries. feel the clarity and live claritin clear. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, claire could only imagine enjoying chocolate cake. now she can have her cake and eat it too. nexium 24hr stops acid before it starts f

and the fbi. gerald nabler on the house judiciary committee, former congressman tom davis and a former fbi special agent who once served as a especially assistant to former fbi directors james comey. this is an hour and a half. >>> typically think identify with the supreme court. there are two far more powerful ins tuctions created by that document, the presidency and the congress. i have the privilege to work as a lawyer both. it is my mission at georgetown do my best to remind students and faculty and our visitors about the importance of these institutions. to day we'll hear from members of congress on the role of congress in ensuring the faithful execution of the law. i'm lee indicted delighted we h distinguished member of panel here's today and experts. our leadoff speaker is representative gerald nadl rechlt, ranking member of the house judiciary committee. he represents the tenth district of new york. he is the member of the judiciary committee. in the past he's been the ranking member of the subcommittee on the constitution and civil justice. he is a graduate of colombia