we need the fbi to be accountable because we need the fbi to be effective. its mission is to protect us from the most dangerous threats facing our nation and as the director was last here, since the director was last here the drumbeats of the attacks on the united states from those directed or inspired by isis or other radical islamic terrorist has continued. for example, in june 2016, a terrorist killed 49 and wounded another 53 in orlando, frequently -- frequented by the gay and lesbian community. it was the most deadly attack in the united states soil since 9/11, but long afterwards in september, a terrorist stabbed ten in a mall in minneapolis and another terrorist injured 31 after he detonated bombs in new jersey and new york city, and in november, terrorists injured 13 after driving into students and teachers at ohio state university. our allies haven't been immune either, as we read in the newspaper frequently. we all recall the tragedy of july 2016 when terrorists plowed a truck through a crowd in france killing over 80 people. so we in the congress

good job by the fbi. >> i have respect that the fbi has given it a second chance. as you know the fbi -- and i give them a lot of credit -- because they're fighting forces they're not suppose stod to be fighting. >> i was not his fan but what he did, he brought back his reputation. he brought it back. he's got to hang tough because there's a lot of people want him to do the wrong thing. what he did was the right thing. >> so now your white house is saying that what he did was wrong but previously as a candidate, donald trump was saying it's the right thing. >> you're confusing two things that don't belong. thanks for the trip down memory lane. that was fun but here's what happened today. today not in the campaign, in the white house, the president of the united states -- >> so that person doesn't exist anymore? candidate donald trump is a fictional karncharacter we can longer refer to? >> i'll ignore how unkind that is. he needs confidence in his fbi director and he doesn't have it. >> when is the moment he lost confidence? >> read the letters. it's a confluence of

-- and lead the fbi and restore confidence of the american people. this was the right decision at the right time. >> considering the bipartisan concern, why not support an independent panel? >> the evidence, the facts that are in public today are very clear, the former director of national intelligence has said there is no evidence of collusion. the president and i remain confident the committees in the house and senate looking into every aspect of issues that arise out of the election will be able to do their work in an orderly way. the president was informed several times by the former director of the fbi he was not under investigation. the simple fact is director comey had lost the confidence of the american people. the support i heard from them is of the senate today when i was over by the senate chamber, support for the decision being expressed in this capitol building and around the country is reflective of the fact that it was time for a fresh start at the fbi. the president did as he is done in so many cases, he provided strong leadership. to

fbi hated james comey. fbi was in turmoil. that was blown out of the water as soon as they tried it. but they resuscitated it today. the attorney general today under oath briefly tried to bring it back to life. >> i presented to the president my concerns and those of deputy attorney general rod rosenstein about the ongoing leadership issues at the fbi as stated in my letter recommending the removal of mr. comey. >> attorney general jeff sessions today claiming once, this was one of his attempts at explaining it. claiming initially today that the fbi director james comey had to be fired. this remarkable, unprecedented thing in american history. it had to happen because of what he called leadership issues at the fbi. as we've just shown, that really did not fly when the trump administration tried it before. today it was also quickly blown out of the sky. >> one of the comments you made in your testimony was that you'd reached this conclusion about the performance of then director comey's ability to lead the fbi. that you agreed

leave the fbi so i will support his nomination to be fbi director. i want to begin by saying a few words about after 24 years in this place what is necessary going forward. first it is really important that we have base from b. i direct your. there can be no manipulation.ns secondly special counsel robert mueller must be allowed to proceed with his investigation undisturbed. m third, the fbi director must manage and speak for the fbi on the basis of the constitution and the laws of the united states not that big dates or requests or statements of any politically elected person in this country. fourth, the fbi director must be independent from the white house from any political figure. this is what the fbi and the american people need now. the fbi as you and i know it's a critically important law enforcement agency. it must be able to move forward with its work and with its senior leadership in place. as i have noted a mr. wray's hearing and just noted again the fbi must be an independent blonde foursome and organization free from political influence.

calling the acting director of the fbi corrupt, firing the director of the fbi, insisting that the fbi must report directly to the president. raising the prospect that this attorney general was wrong to recuse himself of an fbi investigation into a campaign he was involved in. pressuring to the point where nobody would be surprised if he tried to get rid of that recusal. and now launching this counternarrative that the whole vismt investigation is fruit of a poison treat. that the fbi-russia investigation is itself a russian plot. all of these different attacks all happening simultaneously, all attacking and trying to undermine and discredit the federal bureau of investigation, while they investigate this president. what is the fbi going to do about that? i have just the guy to ask. he's here next. ...it starts a chain reaction... ...that's heard throughout the connected business world. at&t network security helps protect business, from the largest financial markets to the smallest transactions, by sensing cyber-attacks in near real time and automatically deploying countermeasures. kee

we need the fbi to be accountable because we need the fbi to be effective. its mission is to protect us from the most dangerous threats facing our nation and as the director was last here -- since the director was last here, the drumbeat of attacks on the united states from those directed or inspired by isis or other radical islamic terrorists has continued. for example, in june 2016, a terrorist killed 49 and wounded another 53 in orlando. frequented by gay and lesbian community. it was a most deadly attack in the united states soil since 9/11 but afterwards in september, a terrorist stabbed ten at a mall in minneapolis and another terrorist injured 31 after he detonated bombs in nj new jersey and new york city. in november, a terrorist injured 13 after driving into students and teachers at ohio state university. our allies haven't been immune, either, as we read in the newspaper frequently. july 2016 when terrorists plowed a truck through a crowd in france killing over 80 people. so, we in the congress need to make sure that the fbi has the tools it needs

to the fbi. comey,not have to fire he could have kept him there, and we could have had problems because of it. he did not have to, he is president. host: comey with a 10 year appointment, cut down to just over three and a half years after his firing. he was the seventh director of the fbi. brian from houston is next, independent. comey, i think director the way he acted last year, i felt like he was the one that was trying to be straightforward with the american people. finally put this in front of the american people, remove the blocking of all of the bureaucratic red tape. when loretta lynch met with out -- he do it would be horrible for her to come out and say it so he had to do it. the fact that he did not charge her with anything is what excess -- upset the republicans. was undermp investigation and his team was under investigation and he did not mention this at all last year during the election. host: when chuck grassley puts out a statement saying, the effectiveness of the fbi depends on p

it ended up in the fbi's possession, what did the fbi do with it? and your answer to us is you will not give us meinformation on that today? >> my answer has a couple parts to it. they're certain of the various questions asked here today. there's some topics i think it's not appropriate to discuss in open forum. there's some topics that are classified. >> whether you use it or not though is not classified. go ahead. >> there are some topics where even though the information is classified, we can and do and will share it with the committees in an appropriate setting. and then there are some topics that go straight to even it's not just a question of classification that goes straight to access to sensitive sources and methods which is something that all of us as americans have to take very, very seriously. >> the chairman confident intelligence committee has a right to that. you won't even produce it to the chairman of the intelligence committee. here's the problem. whether strzok was involved in this needs to be disclosed to congress. whether the dos

any fbi director needs to effectively lead the fbi national security mission. so to that effect, please explain how you have the relevant background, skills, knowledge and experience necessary to lead the fbi inty combating national security threats, particularly in the area of counterintelligencend and counterterrorism. >> mr. chairman, most of my four years in the leadership of the department both as associate debbie general and assistant attorney general in criminal division were focused on those issues, counterterrorism and counterespionage. importantly, during that time, before 2005 or 2006 both the counterterrorism section and the counterespionage system were part of the criminalization.we my oversight responsibilities in the criminal division itself and to some extent as associate deputy general focus on the criminal division and those sections were particularly high priority. well over 50% of my time in those four years was focused on these very kinds of issues. >> thank you. now i want to go, this will probably be my last question for my ten minutes. t

what is the fbi's role? >> the fbi probably has multiple roles, a criminal investigative role and there are ways in which the criminal investigative tools can be used to prevent, detect, disrupt threats. but it also has an intelligence role, where it partners with our partners in the intelligence committee and our overseas partners in trying to defend our systems and our infrastructure from attacks. it just a slightly different kind of role, and the two things work hand-in-hand. i would think that there is an analogy that could be drawn to the terrorism arena in terms of awareness, i remember listening to a prominent counterterrorism expert in a room full of prosecutors from all around the world, it was a very jovial meeting until this guy got up and spoke. he said there are two types of countries, those who have been hit by a terrorist attack and get it and there are those who have not yet. you could have heard a pin drop. it certainly caught a lot of joy out of the room. i think there is a degree to which

as well as for the fbi. i described judge bell then as a man noted for his quick mind, his candor, integrity and his independence. years later in may 2003, judge bell contacted me. i was out of the senate at that stage. praising christopher wray as a rising star. he suggested that i recommend him to my former senate colleagues as a terrific choice to be confirmed to head the criminal division of the department of justice. since that time i followed his career in and out of government. can i have satisfied myself fully to my support for christopher in 2003 was well-placed. i can assure this committee that chris embodies the same trades that enabled griffin bell to rebuild public companies in the department of justice, quickness of mind, candor, integrity and independence. a couple of questions. what is the basis of my confidence in chris? senator feinstein, hope to address some of your questions and answering that question that i posed. from his service as assistant united states attorney in atlanta in 1997.

would the fbi director, or someone who should be the fbi director. >> or used to be the fbi director -- >> ever had a conversation like that with the president of the united states and assured him he was not under investigation yektly. >> there are guide lines in how investigations are to be handled with respect to the rest of the executive branch. those guidelines certainly do not allow the fbi director to go to the president and say you're clear. so i don't know what the president was basing that paragraph in his letter on, but if director comey said it, he would have been violating all sorts of norms and procedures in terms of how the fbi and the executive branch are to function. >> he should be fired if he actually said that. >> i think director comey deserves the right to have his own explanation of what that paragraph refers to, if it refers to anything at all. >> i think it's crucial that he does. because by the way, he could answer whether he said that without saying the president is or is not -- there are ways you can wordsmith to say they talked about it three specific time

we are trying to figure out why he's no longer the head of the fbi, we don't know who will lead the fbi and the vice president is saying that the safety of the american people as part of this decision. do you believe that we are safer without james comey? >> i'm not familiar with the context of that statement. i wouldn't want to comment on that without knowing more of what we was referring to. i was referring to what his decision would be to replace him in the process that went into that. >> jenna: do you think we were in some sort of danger with james comey leading fbi? >> not to my knowledge, but i don't have all the information. >> jenna: it was an interesting comment that stuck out to me. we'll get that sound and talk a little bit more about it. as we talked about before the break, there are some that are saying we are on the verge of a constitutional crisis, especially our friends of the other side of the aisle, what do you think about that? are we? >> i don't believe that. i think the process worked the way it was supposed to work. rob rosenstein was confirmed by 94 senators so we

whereas thomas o'connor, president of the fbi's agents association said the fbi continues to be the premier law enforcement agency in the world. they're dedicated to their mission. suggesting otherwise is simply false. i'm curious if you think their defense of the bureau is wrong or misplaced and i hope you'll address the matter in your testimony today. your job requires you to have the courage in these circumstances to stand up to the president. that responsibility is far more than a matter of politics. there are real consequences for allowing the president to continue his attacks on the fbi and to continue unchecked in this manner. for example, fbi statistics released last months show a marked increase in the rise of hate crimes in the united states. your data indicate 6,121 hate crimes against 7,615 victims last year alone. last week about 70 of our colleagues wrote to me and chairman goodlatte asking us to, quote, convene immediate hearings to determine what can be done to stem the tied, unquote, of this violence. i agree completely. this committee should address the matter without dela

what is the fbi's role? >> i think the fbi probably has multiple roles. it has a criminal investigative role when there are ways in which the criminal investigative tools can be used to prevent, detect, disrupt threats, but then it also has an intelligence role, where it partners with our partners in the intelligence community, and our oversees partners in trying to defend our systems and our infrastructure from attacks. which is a slightly different kind of role. the two things work hand in hand. and i would think that there's an analogy that could be drawn to the terrorism arena, in terms of awareness. i remember listening to a prominent counterterrorism expert in a room full of prosecutors, from all around the world, and it was a very jovial meeting until this guy got up and spoke. he said there are two types of countries. there are those who have been hit by terrorist attacks and get it, and there are those who have not yet. and then you could have heard a pin drop. because it certainly cut a lot of the joy out of the room. i think there is a degree t

an fbi agent who was a key fbi interrogator, testified to us about the contrast between the fbi's techniques and the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the cia during the bush administration. he testified that these enhanced techniques were operationally ineffective and unreliable. and harmful to counterterrorism. we learned that bob mueller ended the fbi's participation in the interrogation of other cia detainees. because of the harsh torture methods they used. and because they were undermining the investigation. he pulled his people out. this is important because the issue of interrogation techniques isn't just something of the past. trump said that torture works, and he would immediately bring back waterboarding and much worse. so i'm interested in knowing more about the nominees knowledge for the cia's use of torture during the bush administration and knowledge of detainee abuse in iraq. the cia's use of torture are a stain on our nation's values and history. the senate intelligence committees torture report was issued in 2014 when i was chairman of that committee. it all lined th

of the fbi. which means he's now leading the fbi investigation into the russian attack on our election and trump campaign's potential involvement in it. his name is andrew mccabe. he reportedly took a long in person meeting with the president yesterday at the white house and now he has been put in charge at the fbi including in charge of the trump-russia investigation. given his previous named individual role in communicating inappropriately with the white house about this inveigation, given his extraordinary effort to kabosh damning reporting about this story we now know is well cooperated and multiple ply sourced and confirmed as true by the director of national intelligence, isn't there an issue here with deputy director andrew mccabe taking over the lead in the fbi's trump-russia investigation? isn't there? how can he specifically be the one leading this investigation now? "new york times" and "washington post" and nbc all confirmed this story in the days before he was fired yesterday, direct

fbi will continue. they can't be stopped, nothing can stop or slow down those investigators, nothing can intimate them out of doing their work. and that sounds awesome as a pep talk because, of course, we don't know that for sure. we've never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news crossed that there are four candidates the administration is now considering to be the new director of the fbi replacing james comey. one of them is andrew mccabe, one is alice fisher. she's a very accomplished lawyer, there is some controversy from her time in the george bush administration from her connections to the prison at guantanamo and interrogations at guantanamo. another candidate is judge michael garcia. he's an appeals judge in new york state and a former federal prosecutors and ins commissioner from the george w. bush era. that's three. and then the fourth candidate who was reportedly being considered to run the fbi is senator john cornyn

at the fbi from the mission. in conclusion, i pledge to be the leader that the fbi deserves and to lead an independent bureau that will make every american proud. thank you, mr. chairman, senator feinstein. i look forward to answering the committee's questions. >> before my first ten-minute start, we're going to have ten-minute rounds, just in case nobody -- came late and didn't hear what i said about that. there are two votes scheduled at 12:30. senator feinstein and i had a short conversation before the meeting. i asked if she thought we could get done by 12:30. she said, we hope so. but obviously, we're going to let people go as long on their questions as they want to. but i would ask people to think in terms of people chairing the committee so we don't lose a whole 45 minutes while we're having votes. so think that in mind. my first series of questions are going to seem maybe very softball. and they probably are softball. but i think that they're very important to every member of this committee, particularly

now, long time observers of the fbi, former fbi agents, the new acting director of the fbi, who was a former deputy to james comey. they all say that the trump-russia investigations at the fbi will continue. they can't be stopped. nothing can slow down those investigators. nothing can intimidate them out of doing their work and that sounds awesome as a pep talk. of course, we don't know that for sure. right. we have never been in this position before. we don't know what's going to happen to those investigations. late tonight, the news cost that there are four candidates the administration is now considering to be the new director of the fbi replacing james comey. one is the acting director, andrew mccame kab. with him is alice fisher. she was under george w. bush. an acol plished lawyer. there will is controversy from her time in the george w. bush administration because of her connections to the prison at guantonomo and to interrogations at the prison at guantonomo. another candidate is reportedly judge michael garcia, an appeals judge in new york state. he is also a former federal p

by those that serve us as thet t fbi. it's safe to say we have more questions than answers surrounding the decision to cancel the consolidation in the fbi headquarters and we can learn some of those answers herl today. it's going to have a significant impact on the region the excess costs that would oppose on the federal government. it is an aging building that nov longer meets the needs of the fbi and the 21st century. it suffers significantly in the deferred maintenance.e depart trying to consolidate the part of the uses for the fbi annexes strong advocates for consolidating the headquarters at saint elizabeth speaks dollars in the sense and makes it more efficient and get themst out of the spaces that we are paying a lot of money for. the project may face costhe fbi escalations and we look forwardh to hearing from the witnesses to do it all off the top of their heads and use no notes and we will be on away. before we turn to the witnesses i would like to invite the ranking member and a subcommittee which hases jurisdic

they are the lifeblood of the fbi. they are over and beyond everything else, our best and most impactful resource. now to be clear, the fy 2018 budget represents a decrease of more than $400 million from the fy 2017 levels. this will result in a net reduction of over 1600 positions and more than $44 million for salaries and expenses. so let me shift briefly to program enhancements. i'd like to highlight a few of the things we've requested. first and foremost, in cyber. we've asked for $41.5 million to build on our cyber capabilities. these are investigative capabilities, collection capabilities and analytic capacity. the frequency and impact of cyber attacks on our networks has increased dramatically. we need to shift from a reacting after the fact, to preventing such attacks before they occur. we've got to collect the best intelligence and we have to share it with our partners, law enforcement and the private sector in real-time. and to do that we have to hire and develop the best cyber talent. in the counterintellige

at the fbi from the mission. in conclusion, i pledge to be the leader that the fbi deserves and to lead an independent bureau that will make every american proud. thank you, mr. chairman, senator feinstein, i look forward to answering the committee's questions. >> my first series of questions are going to seem maybe very softball. and they probably are softball, but i think that they're very important to every member of this committee, particularly when they have an administration that says democrats can't get answers to their questions when they do their oversight work, or even 30 republicans that aren't chairman of the committees they can't get answers to their questions and things like the role of whistleblowers, that may not sound like the stuff that is basic to your job, but it's basic to the constitutional principle we have as separation of powers and the constitutional role of congress. so the first one we've heard a lot about the need for an fbi to show independence. you just heard what senator feinstein

we have independence of the fbi. we have ten year terms because we don't want presidents firing fbi directors out of political anger, out of fear of their own investigation. so you are making a neutral statement of why and how this happened, but it's wrong. >> also in terms of rosenstein and feeling bad for somebody, which you hear a lot about people working in this white house, you have to feel for xyz because this is not slave labor. people actually believe in what they are doing. >> but rosenstein could find the findings that he found. it's not like sean spicer every time he gets to the podium. >> but to your point about credibility though, this is where the corrosive untruth that we have heard from this president during the trump and search from the white house on a daily basis i would say with sean spicer, this is very problematic. when you do something like this, if you were going to take this extraordinary step, you need basically to have the public trust aspect of this job pretty nailed and this undermines it

of the fbi. gsa continues to face challenges related to funding new construction projects due in part to budget constraints. gsa has proposed exchanging the title to federally owned property to other properties for construction services. this was the plan for replacing the hoover building. such exchanges in be of equal desk can be of equal value or in addition to cash -- gsa has limited experience successfully completing these exchanges. reviewed14 report, we five projects where gsa subsequently canceled -- there was little to no market interest in baltimore and surrounding properties. gsa pursued a large swap exchange potentially involving up to five properties in the federal triangle south area of washington in order to finance construction of gsa headquarters and other federal properties. in 2013, gsa decided to focus on exchanging only two buildings. gsaebruary of 2016, canceled the procurement stating the private investor evaluations fell short of the government's estimated values and the am

>> i would say i think the fbi director and the fbi needs to be -- the fbi and fbi director for all americans including muslim americans and the -- my experience in terrorism investigations has been that some of the best leads we ever got, were from members of that community, from muslim americans. i remember having conversations with that with among others, u.s. attorney from your state, pat fitzgerald, a friend of mine. while certainly we do face threats from certain radical ideologies when turn to violence and it is also true that those americans just like all americans are people we need to get information from to help protect the homeland. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> congratulations to you and your family on this nomination. i appreciate your willingness to come back in the public service at a time when i think the nation's confidence in its public institutions is -- has been shaken. and i think it's very important to have somebody of your character and background and experience serve as the next fbi director because i think public confidence in the fbi has been shaken over recent eve

this is not your mother's fbi. what's wrong with the fbi is not the average f every day agent. if the management at the fbi that is the problem and that management has not improved with the arrival of mr. christopher wray. i cannot understand how the current fbi director can tolerate having andrew mccabe on his staff at this point given his history and his track record. i think the fbi is in very serious trouble. it started with james comey. comey, the dirtiest cop in america, destroyed the fbi's reputation with his bizarre personal behavior, beginning way before his july 5th news conference. if the bureau is in trouble. it needs a major overhaul, and if it continues to resist congress, i believe the contempt of congress for the current director and other people in the agency is absolutely justified. >> tucker: this is the most powerful agency of the federal government, they can literally take the break the front door f your house. >> shore up when you were in bed in order to frighten you like they did with mr. manafort. what a disgusting awful display of raw political power. n

director's position at the fbi. lou: he was restoring public confidence in the fbi. the first requisite was the firing of james comey to reach that goal. the second will be what? is there a readily available candidate in the opinion of the president to replace comey? >> by default the deputy director becomes the acting director. the president as he said in the letter tonight began the serving process and that was offered immediately. the goal is to act on the recommendation of the deputy attorney general and the attorney general to restore confidence in the fbi. lou: and as i go through all of the memoranda, the letter of the attorney general, the memorandum from rod rosenstein, it's all pertained to the handling by the director of the investigation of the clinton e-mails. why do we presume that this clears the way for a reopening of the iestigation into the hillary clinton e-mail by the fbi? >> it would be improper for me to comment on any investigations ongoing with respect to mrs. clinton in the e-mail. that's up

about the fbi. based on some of the testimony that this committee and others have heard in the past, not today. here's what i'm looking for. i want you to be apolitical. i don't want you to exhaust yourself trying to make political friends up here. i want you to be socrates. i want you to be dirty harry with the bad guys, and i want you to tell me how you're going to do that in this environment. >> well senator, first let me say that i have, i think a heightened appreciation for the point that you're making about the power of the fbi and what you said about the fbi's ability to ruin people's lives. one of the things that i did even as head of the criminal division was i tried to meet with every new hire, we're talking about over 400 lawyers, every time we had a new hire, i would spend 10-15 minutes with that person and one of the points i would try to make is that the decisions that that prosecutor would make, and the same thing would be true, obviously for fbi agents in spades, short of their weddi

what happens to that formal fbi investigation? >> that fbi reports to robert mueller. he is now in charge of that investigation. leadership of the justice department has now been removed completely from handling any part of this. they won't be able to know what is going on and mueller will be able to appoint people under him, to help manage the investigation. they don't know where this will go. >> former fbi director robert mueller, new special counsel, investigating. let me read another sentence from the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein. quote. i determined that it is in the public interest for me to exercise my authority and appoint -- [ inaudible ] i'm going to laura jared at the justice department. laurie, you are there inside this briefing. give us more explanation on why this extraordinary decision was made. >> yeah, wolf, we were gathered very swiftly. here at department of justice with department staff, rod rosenstein, here i should mention, but they put out this briefing but they also tried to walk us through the history here explaining the exceptional

yet, the fbi remained silent. in fact, the fbi summarily refused to acknowledge the investigation. it's still very unclear, and i hope director that you will clear this up, why the fbi's treatment of these two investigations was so dramatically different. with the clinton e-mail investigation it has been said that, quote, exceptional circumstances, end quote, including the high interest in the matter and the need to reassure the public required public comment from the fbi. however, i can't imagine how an unprecedented big and bold hacking interference in our election by the russian government did not also present exceptional circumstances. as i said at the beginning, we're in a unique time. a foreign adversary actively interfered with a presidential election. the fbi was investigation not just that interference but whether campaign officials associated with the president were connected to this interference. and the attorney general has recused himself from any involvement in this investigation. at the same time, the fbi must continue to work with its state and local law enforcement

hearing on the annual fbi budget. texas congressman chairs this appropriations subcommittee hearing. it's just over an hour. >> will come to order. the subcommittee is pleased to welcome today acting director andrew mccabe to present the fiscal year 2018 budget request for the federal bureau of investigation. the fbi is our premier federal law enforcement and investigative intelligence agency which makes headlines with cyber threats, espionage or international organized crime. the fbi leads into terrorism, counterintelligence, national security outlets by combating gangs, financial fraud and human trafficking in public corruption. it is the indispensable partner to state and local law enforcement agencies and our liaison with the federal law enforcement partners. we are very grateful that the fbi's leading investigations into the wednesday morning shooting, and we are deeply grateful for the work your officers do every day and for looking into an this terrible tragedy. were very, very grateful for the work of the capi

the president fired the fbi director. it's simple. no, it's not simple, because that's the man that's overseeing the investigation into his campaign's ties with russia. >> thank you! >> it's totally complicated. what we have here now, brooke, is a white house in a crisis of credibility. and it is unbelievable to watch sarah huckabee sanders, for now the third day in a row, needing to adjust her story because the president did not send his team out with all the information, so therefore, they were in the position of lying to the american people about why president trump fired director comey. the entire justification on tuesday night when this happened, from sarah, from sean spicer, from kellyanne conway, was about rod rosenstein's letter. that was it. today, in the interview with nbc news, we learned that president trump, regardless of whatever the recommendation came from the deputy ag, was going to fire jim comey. so we were lied to by the communications staff. president trump in that interview today threw his own team under the bus

it ended up in the fbi's possession, what did the fbi do with it? and your answer to us is you will not give us information on that today? dir. wray: my answer has a couple parts to it. there are certain of the various questions asked here today. there are some topics i think it is not appropriate to discuss in open forum. there's some topics that are classified. mr. desantis: whether you use it or not though is not classified. go ahead. dir. wray: there are some topics where even though the information is classified, we can and do and will share it with the committees in an appropriate setting. and then there are some topics that go straight to, even it's not just a question of classification, the goes straight to the access to sensitive sources and methods , which is something that all of us as americans have to take very, very seriously. mr. desantis: the chairman confident intelligence committee has a right to that. you won't even produce it to the chairman of the intelligence committee. here's the problem. whether strzok was involved in this ne

and just because you change the head of the fbi doesn't mean that everybody else at the fbi just goes on vacation and we're no longer investigating things. i think all of the investigations continue. in fact, i would be shocked if someone at the fbi says tomorrow, oh, because the head is gone, we no longer investigate this thing. i don't know any of the details. if the facts come out that somebody committed a crime, that's a different story and we can address it. right now it's mostly political innuendo and sour dprgrapes ove the losing the investigation. >> not exactly, senator. the former fbi director did testify under oath that he launched a criminal countersbleblcounte counterintelligence investigation into allegations of collusion or cooperation between trump associates from the campaign and the russians as far back as last july. and this investigation, he just reiterated the other day, is continuing. it's not just a little bit of smoke. he says there's a formal, criminal jegs underway. >> but also he's apparently written three written notes to pr president trump saying he's not

today's fbi continues to reflect on fidelity, every every and integrity. it is a model emblazoned on the seal and worth its weight in gold. and for the past 100 years years, the men and women of the fbi have lived up their commitment to fidelity and bravery and integrity and precisely because they have done so they have the reputation that has today. even so these are qualities to be causally burnished by the men and women of the bureau to insure that day did not rust for lack of use. for most of us fidelity is a full to an obligation or trustor duty to the men and women of the fbi fidelity also means fidelity to country and justice and lot. fidelity to the constitution's to equality and liberty bravery is willing to face danger or trouble bravery is not the act of rushing brothers leave but the quiet diligence dedication to face down those who would do less harm and bring them to justice the well-known tennis tibia and arthur ashe once said remarkable heroism is sober not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost but the urge to serve others whateve

>> he did not fire the entire fbi. he fired the director of the fbi in any suggestion this is somehow to stop the fbi's investigation of the attempt by the russians to influence the elections last fall is really patently absurd. this is one person. it is the director. the investigation is going forward both at the fbi and in the senate intelligence committee in a bipartisan way. so i don't think there's any link at all. >> bret: this comes, obviously, senator, after the focus of sally yates, then acting attorney general who was fired, testifying about michael flynn and the warning she gave about the national security advisor that he might be compromised or could be blackmailed by the russians. the questions focused on the 18 days it took from that notice to him actually being fired. is that a concern of yours? >> well, of course i don't know what their conversations were between ms. yates and the white house counsel, nor do i know what president obama said to president trump about general flynn. but certainly if they r

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

you step back from these individual attacks they're making against the fbi and various fbi officials against comey, mueller, mccabe and baker, what republicans are doing is work their way down the list of the witnesses who could corroborate james comey. we know they're going after comey directly. we know there are five or six of these witnesses, senior officials at the fbi who comey told. as of right now they're trying to destroy two of them, mccabe and baker. who doesn't think they're just going to keep going down that list? everybody is focused on whether or not the president is going to fire robert mueller. what the republicans are trying to do right now is instead destroy the credibility of the evidence that robert mueller could use against the president for obstruction of justice, and they're doing it by trying to destroy the careers and reputations of the witnesses that mueller could call. if it destroys the fbi in the process, apparently they think so be it. merry christmas. more ahead. stay with us. patrick woke up with back pain. but he has work to do. so he took aleve. if h

who will run the fbi next? let's get to it. first on the fox news deck, seven days ago, the president's spokesman said president trump had full confidence in fbi director comey. yesterday the president fired him. today another spokesman said the president lost confidence in him and considered firing him from the day he was elected president. the change, according to the white house, president trump questioned comey's reasoning for staying at the fbi. >> i think one of the big catalysts that we saw was last week on wednesday director comey made a pretty starting revelation that he had essentially taken a stick of dynamite and thrown it into the department of justice by going around the chain of command when he decided to take steps without talking to the attorney general or the deputy attorney general when holding a press conference and telling them that he would not let them no what he was going to say. that is simply not allowed. >> shepard: james comey was leading the criminal investigation into russian meddling in the u.s. p

tom, you spent a career at the fbi. worked your way up to become an assistant fbi director. when you hear the president say that the now fired fbi director was a show boat, a grand stander, and he left the fbi in turmoil, your reaction? >> first of all, that's insulting obviously. the way the firing was conducted was extremely insulting. most of the people i've talked to at the fbi, actually all of the them, have said it was disgusting how the firing was conducted. you take a poll in june and one in september and the numbers might not match and both could be true. last year in july when director comey had his press conference and fbi agents, former agents like me and others that i was with heard commeyey's testimonyd all of us were the impression wow, he's going to recommend charges skp charges and were shocked when he didn't. the turmoil comes later not when she was prosecuted. but when huma abedin were completely exposed, but when they heard about hillary clinton's interview at the fbi and a lot of people, including me, questioned wait a minute, we wouldn't have done that

but he was by now more marginalized than ever at the fbi. and so in july of 2001, when that memo from the phoenix office pleading for investigations of flight schools made its way to headquarters, it was not passed on to o'neill or mawn in new york. nor was the struggle that august of the minnesota office to investigate the alleged 20th hijacker, zacarias moussaoui. the leaders of the most sophisticated office in the fbi, the office that under o'neill had been dealing with these matters for six years, apparently were out of the loop. >> john had heard the alarm bells too, yet he felt that he was frozen out, that he was not in a capacity to really do anything about it anymore because of his relationship with the fbi. so it was a source of real anguish for him. >> narrator: 13 months after that briefcase incident, with the investigation still open, a well-placed leak to a newspaper made sure his government career was over. >> the new york timeis now starting to ask questions about that incident, both at the headquarters level and at the new yo

when the fbi director was in fact in los angeles? didn't he deserve a phone call or a face-to-face conversation? why did he decide to do it that way? >> he followed the proper protocol in that process, which is hand written notification. and at the same time no matter how you fire someone, it's never an easy process. and he -- so he felt like following protocol was the best thing to do. i'm not wear of the conversation. josh. >> was the president aware james comey asked for more resources in the russian investigation and did that factor into his decision? >> not that i'm aware of, and i think that would be a better question for the department of justice. >> on the campaign trail president trump said he actually praised director comey for having the guts to reopen the investigation. how is he moved by a letter that said that director comey was if anything too harsh on hillary clinton. why did that move the president to fire him? >> again, i think you're looking at two very different positions. the president was wearing a different hat

>> how important was the fbi director's failure to go out of the fbi? >> i think that's probably one of the many factors. you can't deny somebody that that wasn't a problem. so i think that was just another one of the many reasons that he was no longer had the confidence of the president or the rest of the fbi. >> can we expect more firings from the justice department? >> not that i'm aware of today. >> going forward, does the president want the department of justice to shut down what he called the taxpayer funded charade investigated? >> he wants them to continue with whatever they see appropriate and see fit. just the same as he's encouraged the house and senate committees to continue any on going investigations. look, the bottom line is, any investigation that was happening on monday is still happening today. that hasn't changed. and, in fact, we encourage them to complete this investigation so we can put it behind us and we can continue to see exactly what we've been saying for nearly a year. there's no evidence of collusion between the trump campai