Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 02052018 20180205

Washington journal, what is next after the release of the House Intelligence Committee memo. First, were from university of texas law and also a Judicial Watch. Host the House Intelligence Committee meets at 5 00 to consider if they will release the democratic response released by republicans last week. If they do, the white house would he given five days to object. It will gojects it, to the house for a vote. Trump said the release of the memo vindicates him in the investigation being conducted by Robert Mueller. Several republicans disagree. For our next hour, we want to get your thoughts on if you agree with the president possible assessment on the release of the memo. Heres how you can let us know. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. You can post thoughts on twitter, cspanwj. On our twitter page twitter. Com cspanwj. The memo, from the president , it totally vindicates the president in the probe, but the witchhunt goes on and on. Collusion and obstruction. After one year of looking and leslie finding nothing, collusion is dead. This is an american disgrace. Today this morning, these are the editors saying the men not saying the memo does vindicate the president. It raises potentially troubling questions, there is another side the public should be allowed to see before drawing conclusions. To classify it as anything other than an attempt to muddy the waters. With the inquiry gathering speed , the memo helps the president timehonored defense of prosecuting the prosecutors in the court of public opinion. This is from james robbins. The headline, republican memo exposes the abuse of power. He is writing we see a network of government abuse, seeking to the electoral process and failing that, to sabotage a president. Washington officials do not have the final say on what we see. They work for us. We have the right to know everything they have done purportedly in our name. You can give your thoughts in our first hour this morning. Go to republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. One of the republicans on a sunday show talking about the release of the memo and what it does to the investigation by Robert Mueller was trey gowdy. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] memo tweeted the totally vindicated trump in the memo. We sat down with trey gowdy. We asked if he saw the president had been vindicated. I dont think it has impact on the russia probe. Not to me. I was involved in the drafting of it. There is a Russian Investigation without a dossier. The dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at trump tower, and email sent by Cambridge Analytic a, nothing to do with George Papadopoulos meeting in britainen in great or obstruction of justice. If you agree with , or the president , that he has been vindicated, you can give your thoughts online at twitter and facebook. At 5 00, the House Intelligence Committee will meet to see about the memo that was produced, 10 pages in total. If they vote, it goes to a process. That hearing will take place at 5 00 this afternoon. Talk about these and other matters, john bennett. Now, what is the white house thinking on whether this memo should be released . Guest it would be a long shot clearnk trump is going to the democratic memo for release. The wildcard is what his legal team, his Government Legal Team and hishite house personal lawyers, what they democratice with the memo, and his political advisers. There is a school of thought that others have urged the president to fully cooperate. Ith the russia probe they may argue releasing the democratic memo, they said last in parte president released the Republican House intelligence memo because he wants everything to be transparent as it relates to the russia investigation. That faction may argue he needs to release the democratic memo as well as if this is about transparency. Is using the republican memo to try to discredit the special counsel probe, discredit bob mueller, discredit how senior fbi and justice officials went about the earliest phases of the russia investigation in securing the pfizer warrant the fisa warrant. What the clear yet white house would do with the democratic memo, if, as you alluded to, if the panel even votes to send it to the white house. Process as for the republican memo. It would have to be voted on and then it would go for president ial review. Is it even gets to the white house. It has to get out of committee first. Host you talk about a story on the nunez memo. What is at stake here. The government shutting down on thursday. Government funding runs out. They are talking about a six or seven week stopgap funding measure. I talked to some formal officials former officials and a democratic aides and the warning from democrats on the hill, it it is not that there is memo willthe nunes cause a Government Shutdown. The worry is what happens if the president uses the republican rosenstein . Rod democrats have the ability to grind the senate to a halt in protest of anything the president might do here. The ball is in trumps court. Firing rosenstein could lead to overnment shutdown parent Government Shutdown. The Government Shutdown and daca negotiations are ongoing. Officials said. His does not help things dealmaking was not going that well. This creates more bad blood. We have a fight over this democratic memo. The president does not know what he is going to do, how he is going to use this republican memo, how he might react to seeing the democratic memo. Neither party, nobody wants a Government Shutdown. Deal nowat thin ice and we dont know how things are going to play out the next day or two. By wednesday, we will have a good idea about a Government Shutdown or if all of this other stuff, these other issues are put aside in they are able to weekthis six or seven continuing resolution, which is what leaders want to do. They dont want this lingering into the weekend. Host that is john bennett. Reports on the events of this week. You can find his work on the roll call website. Again, to your calls on the president s thinking about the memo. If you agree or disagree, you can call on the lines. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. We will start with our democrats line. I am impressed with trey gowdy, a republican with courage. There are so many who are spineless cowards and boldfaced liars, including the Republican Leadership. Went to the west wing of the white house, received documents he then told the press he was giving to the white house, was providing them with information. He seems to be the perfect person to do trumps bidding. If trump was innocent, he would whowant to fire the people are doing the investigation. Transparency, it would be laughable if it was not so tragic. Jenny, lancaster, ohio, republican line. Such a mess. Is comprehend think i what some of this is going on, i get confused again. I am a republican and voted for donald trump. He is not a politician. A lot of people get upset with him because he is not. He talks in layman terms. Of people, if you ask them, democrats dont like donald trump and if you ask them why, they cannot come up with an answer. The point we are talking about, he is thinking about vindication in the release of the memo. Do you agree or disagree . Caller i agree. I think he is innocent and dont winky has done anything. I dont think he has done anything. New york. S go to independent line. Caller the lady saying she likes donald trump, he cannot do any wrong, he has done a lot of wrong to this country. Fox news is partly responsible for that memo being sent out. They act like an arm of the government, like putin. This memoays vindicates him. What do you think . Caller how many guys were in the courtroom have brought out a letter and said this vindicates me . Would that work in a reallife courtroom . No. Just farting in the wind. Thats about it. Host the House Intelligence Committee will meet today to see about the democratic response. That will be at about 5 00 this afternoon, on if that memo will be released. The New York Times talks about role inrney generals all of this. The headline saying silent as trump attacks his department. What is unusual, with the president leading the charge and the attorney general missing in action. Why isnt he sticking up for the department . It is a duty previous attorney generals embrace. John ashcroft allowed his acting to defy the Bush Administration during confrontation in his half little room over a Surveillance Program that the Justice Department lawyers deemed unconstitutional. The president has critiqued the work of the Justice Department and complained about mr. Perceived acts of disloyalty. When it comes to the pro by rob or molar, he is vindicated by the release of the republican isu by Robert Mueller, he vindicated by the release of the republican memo. You can agree or disagree. If you remember, trump said the same thing last year, said he was vindicated when nunes went to the white house and took that document over there. Trump lied and said the same exact thing with the same exact hook he uses. Evenrepublicans have not read the underlying documents. The thing they are supposed to be using that caused them to start the russia investigation, none of those people read the underlying documents. How can they say what happened . They do not know. They are trying to full people and lied a people. And lie to people. If people are calling in and think trump is vindicated, they are lying. Hear from gary, alabama, republican line. Vindicates memo trump. Are totallyrats transparent, why do they not want an investigation into alleged abuse by the f dei and department of justice the fbi and department of justice that undermines. Documentt about the gives the president vindication . Legal we may have had a things done by the department of justice and the fbi in obtaining the fisa warrants. Rue, there would be no investigation at all. We need to investigate the to be that are supposed the caretakers of this country, in this case, the fbi and department of justice, that they are following the rule of law. Host that is gary in alabama. On twitter, absolutely not. If this were to stop moreturely, it would cause investigations and investigations of those investigations. Twitter, anyone would agree it is a hoax. We will hear next from john. Is in eastern North Carolina on our independent line. What do you think about the president s claim . Caller thank you for taking my call. Again, there is so much going on with everybody secondguessing every body. We are divisive in the country. I am 63. Nts out thank you for taking my call. It is a Wonderful Service you do. Have been messing with our country since world war ii. War,uban crisis, the cold and the nuclear arms race. Through a reagan, the rest of history, and they are still messing with our election. That did not change the fact that hillary had the dnc rigged against bernie and the Clinton Foundation collected about 4 million before the election. Thank you again for taking my call. There are too many millionaires in the senate and the house. Host to the point of the memo, do you agree with the president or not . A wholewe are making lot of about nothing on 24 hour news channels to sell sensationalism and commercials and to make names for ourselves. We are missing the peoples business. Texas, david is next. , trump is right. When you asked the republicans, they say there should still be an investigation. You are not getting clarity. The investigation should be into the meddling of the russians into the election. I dont think anyone is denying it happens. Sick of hearing 17 agencies said it. It is really three or four. It is not 17. Back, what do we know about anything . If you start with what you know about the document, a political organization, the clinton campaign, the democratic , theyal committee laundered it through an this cameas soon as out, the Podesta Group disappeared. They have been around for 20 years. More lobbying for in theesta interests ukraine than anything else. Back to the document, the scale of the political dirty tricks this represents, the thing trump spinning himself against are the same claims trump claimed he was being wiretapped and surveilled and the press made fun of him. Carter page, he went to russia. No one has said he has been accused of thing since 2013 for one reason or another, for somebodys purpose or another. He is an innocent victim who has had his name dragged through the mud. Illegal aboutng talking to a russian or using russian salad dressing. Host got you. This paragraph saying information regarding George Papadopoulos, there is no evidence of cooperation or conspiracy. Apples information triggered the opening of an fbi counterintelligence investigation. It goes on from there. That is giving some clarification from the nunes memo. The house meets today to see if the democratic memo will be put out as well. Until then, the president saying the release of the memo vindicates him. Paul, appleton, wisconsin, tell us what you think. God, that last caller. Workta and manafort together . What is wrong with the republicans in our country. My god. They are going after our fbi, our justice system, this is what putin wants. Host what was wrong with the last callers assessment . Caller he linked up john podesta with manafort. Manafort is a crook. They had business ties with the ukraine. John podesta did not have anything to do with manafort. Assessmentresidents about vindication, what do you think about that . Caller this is ridiculous. He is a russian mob boss and every body knows it. He launders money from russia for the last 30 years. Host ohio, independent line. Mike is next. This is ludicrous. The guy from wisconsin, we have to stop. Dont take parties in your backyard. You have to have an open mind. Rigged the election against bernie. If hillary is such a criminal, she was supposed to have been the president , this all would have been swept under the rug. Now that she isnt the president , it is coming out how crooked that building is right behind you. We need to open our minds and get independent lawyers in there and get a grand jury going and start throwing these people in jail. The president thinking he is vindicated by the memo. What do you think about that . Not guilty of anything. If Robert Mueller had anything, he would be up on charges, correct . Going from there, what do you think as far as the release of the democratic memo . Should it come out . They wantdont think more truth coming out from under the rug. Won theshould have election and everything would have swept under the rug. It is cia in washington cover your ass. Host democrats line, this is jesse. I love cspan. They made a believer out of me. Stay transparent. Everyone involved in the russia investigation from the beginning lied under oath. Withe, america, lets stay god and the scriptures. Thing, forportant donald trump, he is my president. He is driving the bus. S, ifhe said fire the sob you dont stand up, youre going to get fired host the memo itself, does it vindicate the president . Caller i dont know. Memo, why,r as the at the point of its release, why are you not sure . It is a smokescreen, a diversion, and an argument. They are still investigating and it is getting closer to our president. Lets stick with our president and try to get him to repent and lets go on with the country. Host washington state, republican line, alan. These racistf media people never said one word about obamas 2500 guns to using the irs to target his host that was the previous administration. What do you think about the memo . Does it vindicate him . Ller host bill. The president. He was in san francisco. There were 6000 people. I told him about solar energy. Does what he does better than anything else. He needs to be vindicated. It is a waste of our time. All of these people are talented. Which books you read. There are 100,000 books in the library of congress. I get to be in the middle of these all the time because i am a statistician. I get to deal with the government. The memo itself, does it vindicate the president . Something heemo is is reflecting upon. It is all he has to work with. Huge smile on his face. He is obviously an honest person, hooked up around the world with all kinds of people. Rothschilds had to finance the war on both sides to get the banks going. Host one of the republicans who went on the show, Brad Wenstrup was on cnn state of the union. Asked if he was in favor of a democratic memo coming out, asked about a memo coming out. If it is indicated the president. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] it is a different situation. We are dealing with a situation in our fisa court and it does not have anything to do with that. My concern is did the court know this was paid for by the Democratic National committee . I would be curious to ask a judge, do you know who paid for this and would it have made a difference . Within the agency, something we have oversight over. The way imo looking at it. That is why i wanted to move forward. Host that was from yesterday. We are asking about the memos release. The president saying it vindicates him when it comes to the larger role of the investigation being done by Robert Mueller. You may agree or disagree. You can call the lines. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. , republican line, jerry is next. Caller good morning. Swamp, you can see it. You have hillary in the center of the wheel. The democrats had to find a way to allow hillary to run to be president. Have the head of the fbi and he says they changed the wording to make it not a criminal, to make it not a crime, and she used she paid ,or the dossier, and the dnc and they did not bring that to notfisa court and they did have the information, so they said we will investigate trump. It is a big swamp. Fbi director had to bow down because he did not investigate hillary and he was writing her acquittal. It is a big mess. You can see how six people have dropped from the doj and the fbi. The corruption is at the top. It is not our good people at the fbi at the lower level. It is the people at the top. The democrats say if they can release their memo, it will add context and give more insight. With that in mind, should it be released . If it it does not matter is released. It just shows the mess at the top with this Loretta Lynch meeting bill on the tarmac. Host do you think the release of the democratic memo will give context to what has occurred in this process . Caller have and they confirmed the democrats have paid for this fake dossier . If there is collusion, it is with hillarycrats and the russians who made the story up and they paid 12 million for a. Host lets go to tiffany in land olakes florida. I feel theer memo does not vindicate donald trump. Sorry, it does not. Host why . Caller everyone is talking about the dossier, based on research that the dossier found out about donald trump. Don jr. Took a meeting with , with information about Hillary Clinton. Why did he not go to the fbi and report the russians were reaching out to them . Been we would have been on an even Playing Field had he reported that information to the fbi. Host lets go to ed, clarksburg, west virginia. Think it goesot all the way to vindicate trump, but it shows there was something smarmy going on. The fbi has only themselves to blame for this. They answer the questions the committee wanted them to do. They say there are pages of whatever they did, but if that document was the main thing, someone should know who that judge was, and someone should ask him is this what you based your decision on . That is ed, and west virginia. Someone asked if the fbi made mistakes in this process. Heres the answer. [video clip] no, because we have not brought the fbi and to ask them these questions, which we would have the opportunity to do in an oversight process. The goal here is not to find out answers from the fbi. It is to discredit the fbi and the investigation, to do the president s bidding. It is all part of the same. Answerirman would not the question about whether his staff was working with the white house on this memorandum. And said there was no working with the white house. He wouldis a reason not answer that in committee. Do you believe his staff worked with the white house . I believe it is possible. It looks like the earlier effort which we know was coordinated by the white house. Host lets hear from rick in ohio, republican line. I am a republican, but i have an independent mind. I can think on my own. Does the document totally vindicate trump . Totally outthe word of that, i would say yes, it does. I dont think anything will ever totally vindicate him or anyone else. That men can to me identicalread documents and, way with different conclusions. Why is that . Because it is political. If we can get a fairminded andture who can sit there read the documents, all of the documents, and report to the American People his findings, it would go a long way. I am a republican. I think trump has been mistreated, mishandled, i have my crew decisions i have my criticisms of him. One criticism is not that he is complicit in some scheme to undermine the democracy of this country. I will support him until i see evidence of the contrary. Bet this memo, should it released, the democratic memo . Caller it should. If i were to read it, i would read it with the same mindset i read the republican document, knowing there is bias built into the document. To the extent of the documents that went into the request, should those be released or would that go too far . Caller i think they should. If for and is necessary, necessary, fine, take out the names. I would love to see a more Fair Assessment on which memo is telling the truth and which is not. On the Robert Mueller investigation, do you think it is necessary . Think it is, just to present the American People there is no obstruction of justice. I am sitting in midamerica, frustrated this is going on and on and on. I am not sure why cannot be concluded. I am not sitting in the halls of congress. I am all for it coming to its conclusion. If trump is found to be guilty, lets do what is necessary to remove him from office if that is solution. Is the solution. If he is not guilty, can we please close this case and go on with americas business . Trump said the memo totally vindicate them in a tweet over the weekend. Whether you agree or disagree, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Democrats line, how bert, from chicago. From chicago. Caller the memo does not vindicate trump. The last paragraph clearly states the fbis counterintelligence investigation into Trump Campaign collusion with russia was triggered by George Papadopoulos shooting off his drunken mouth, bragging he had dirt on Hillary Clinton that came from the russians. April 2016. D in the investigation started in july, triggered by that, not the dossier. That is my point. Host that is albert. The rankinged you member of the House Intelligence Committee. To legally leak confidential information, must be stopped. That is from the president. Jim, fort lauderdale, hello. Republican line. I disagree with the word vindication. What trump should have said is the memo goes a long way to coupaining how an attempted t if people dont think there is something wrong with this fbi investigation, answer me one question. John, andrew mccabe, bruce or, and lisa page all but fired from the fbi. They are telling the people something is wrong. When people say it does not vindicate him, i would say there is no question he is vindicated. There is no court in the land that would take a case with all nest innake hit, rats the fbi. Retired fbi people are applauding this investigation. A grand jury should be reconvened in most of these people should go to jail. When people talk about russian collusion and russian interference, when they are defending this investigation, they talk about the russians try to put out all of this information. When they go to investigate, only one thing gets investigated. That is donald trump. I have not seen one add anyone has put out there that would have influenced this election. Show me one add that appeared one ad that appeared any where that had such weight. Host we learned the court is terrible at protecting our privacy. Get rid of it. Lets go to danny, in alabama. Democrats line. Caller thank you for taking my call. This would be settled if you put out the timeline on when this dossier came out. It did not have anything to do with the investigation of trump and carter page. A while ago, he had his facts wrong. Agents, who disagree with what is going on with trump, trying to discredit the fbi now. Host a look at efforts on immigration being considered in congress issaying expected to pass another shortterm spending bill to avoid a Government Shutdown. The current funding expires at 12 01 a. M. Friday. Lawmakers are frustrated by the gridlock that has prevented them from striking a longterm deal on immigration or spending levels. John mccain and chris coons offer a proposal that offers a to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. You can find out more about this in the pages of the wall street journal. Gather, the what i dossier is not what led to the pfizer warrant. Carter page has been under investigation from the fbi since 2013. Papadopoulos, 2016. This is another attempt by trump to vindicate himself from something he says he is innocent of. He have to totally vindicate himself . Why does he have to undermine the fbi . You think the Robert Mueller investigation should continue . Caller absolutely. Host what do you think it will tell us . Know, but from my experience, i cannot give you proof, but as a fairly intelligent person, there are do not knowhere who how to use the english language proficiently. I have experienced it myself. It is people who do not use the english language efficiently. We will hear from gary, pennsylvania, independent line. Caller hello. Thank you for cspan. Host go ahead. Caller hillary got over on the fbi. Rules the fbi and they cannot handle her. Far, whatre we go too do you think about the vindication aspect, that the president thinks he is vindicated . Think he is in the rights. There was no collusion. There was never collusion. If the democrats want to go that way, they are going to be sorry in the long run. Hillary got over the fbi. Host made that point. Timothy writes about resignation coming from a candidate in the Trump Administration. That is kathleen white. To withdraw this week. She cited a nomination process that dragged on for more than a year. She ended up encountering tough opposition from democrats in the for an oversight role ensuring federal agencies are meeting environmental obligations. She is a fellow at the free publicthink tank texas policy foundation, previously the chairman of the Texas Commission on environmental quality. Her work at the foundation rejected the idea of carbon as a andnt and style instead celebrated the fossil fuel industry for pumping more Carbon Dioxide into the atmosphere, saying that helps plants grow. Fred, florida, go ahead. I think it vindicates trumps position on the memo. f we except the democrats memo, it would be propaganda. No one talks about the Historical Association with the communist party. Us oldtimers know it. This country does not have a chance. If we dont become independents and make a true platform for the independent party. Host what about the memo vindicate the president . That is his words, not mine. Caller it is the Democrats Associated with the russian communist party. It is historically known. No one is saying that. To jeff in go california, democrats line. The document does not vindicate trump. The dossier has anything to do with the decisions on whether trump is vindicated or not, you have to remember there was a republican , a Committee Trump who originally did the research. Any candidate who finds out they to get dirtormation on trump, they would buy it and try to use it themselves. All of this about the dossier, that the democrats bought it, it people had done original research. Why they keep talking about what bought, when a Republican Opposition group against trump created that dossier. One other thing, trump has always said he has never had a life, andn his everybody appears to be kissing. He ring of putin every single cabinet official has been in russia kissing putins ring. Served asael mukasey attorney general from 2007 to 2009. Probe. O and the mueller if part of sin opposition arch was used to fuel he is to investigate, or at least that is unsettling. The water great, iran contra and whitewater investigations identified specific crimes. The public knew what was being investigated. None of the charges Robert Mueller has brought involve coordination or collusion with the russians. George papadopoulos and Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the fbi. Mr. Papadopoulos did not plead guilty to participating in any plot that involve coordination. The Paul Manafort and rick gates indictments charge fraud on the government through receipt of and failure to disclose payments from a prorussian ukraine politician. At minimum, the public should get access to a carefully redacted copy of the fisa application. A couple more minutes, your thinking on this memo that was released. The president says it vindicates him. Lewis, republican line. Caller good morning. Face value, it does not vindicate him. There are a couple of things to look at. Underas been surveillance from us two years. His correspondence, emails, everything. They would have had something by now. [indiscernible] the memo does not vindicate him on face value, but as far as i am concerned, if the fbi has someone under surveillance for two years, they would have something by now. Youeen eu and steve harvey, two are the best dressed on tv. And steve harvey, you two are the best dressed on tv. Caller i think it does vindicate him. Trump tower was wired. That being said, it does not ofdicate him of any type coercion or collusion. The only asset he dropped during his campaign was the Miss Universe pageant being run out of russia. They did not tracked down the money. Until they do, he cannot be found innocent of those charges. Guilty, bute found he has back channels with russia. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to gather tos afternoon around 5 00 consider whether the democrats, their memo that they put out, their version of what happened when it comes to efforts at the fisa court. 10 pages of that. If they vote to release it, the president has five days to accept or deny it. Stay close to our website. For other events going on. Hillary clinton is speaking today on the issue of women and human rights at georgetown university. Is expected that event. You can watch that on cspan cspan. Org, and monitor it on our cspan app. Pennsylvania, democrats line, you are up. Caller it is absurd for people to say this infamous memo vindicates donald trump, and for him to say that the reason is absurd is because Robert Mueller has not completed his investigation or come out with a report of his findings. No one can say trump is vindicated. They cannot know they are correct or not. Is reason the memo exists because most of the gop has jumped on the bandwagon of donald trump. Previously, almost all of the politicians agreed Robert Mueller was the right person for this investigation. Any he was nearly above question. Robert mueller is the one person donald trump fears. Going to bring donald trump down, whether it is after this report is reported or whether it is in two years or three years, Donald Trumps own words are going to bring him down because he cannot control his mouth and so on. Thank you. Priebus was asked about this idea of the president desiring to fire Robert Mueller and if he heard things to that effect. Here is his response. [video clip] i never heard that. The sentiment was expressed . It was clear by the president s words he was concerned about the conflicts of interest he felt the special counsel had. He made that very clear. Maybe someone interpreted that to mean something else. I know the difference between fire that person, why is in that to what i read in the New York Times piece. I did not feel that when i was there. I think i did not think it was right, let me put it that way. I did not believe it was accurate. You are not disputing it. Why . From my point of view. But you never heard it. Call, tom ine software, new jersey. Republican line. Caller i dont think this totally vindicates donald trump from everything but i think the same way that the democrats and theever weaponize doj, other people weaponize the presidency by putting donald trump in there. This is a big fight. He is a person for what most people believe is for the people, but calling back at it, i would like to see the democrats response. I really do. I think they are scrambling. I am watching these different shows, it looks like their hands are going to pop off i appreciate you letting me talk. Time in new jersey on the topic of releasing this memo. In this case, it was the president s own assertion that it would vindicate him. We continue on with our guest talking about the memo. The first guest is Stephen Vladeck of the university of texas at austin. He covers National Security issues for that organization. Then later on, Chris Farrell from the Group Judicial watch. Both talking about the memo, contents, and where we go from here. All of that as washington journal does quote continues washington journal continues. Each year, Tech Companies on gun new products and give insight to whats ahead. 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Attorney general jim would will be our guest on the bus during washington journal starting at 9 30 a. M. Eastern. Our first guest is Stephen Vladeck of the university of texas austin, the law professor there, covers National Security issues. Good morning to you, sir. Could we get your sense of the assessment on the republican memo . Guest after all of that sound and the fury, i think the release of the memo was a bit anticlimactic. The memo really doesnt include much beyond what had already leaked out. Of course, there are these questions about the provenance of this dossier, but if the goal of the memo was to provide proof that either the entire investigation by special counsel bob mueller is tainted or that Deputy Attorney general ubenstein rosenstein is part of this controversy, honestly, i think it failed on both accounts. Alks can accept it as Conspiracy Theory perpetuated meme, but the memo did not really do the work that its patrons and authors wanted it to do. The neverit perspective of how this fisa court works and what information it takes to actually get someone to be investigated under fisa . Guest part of the problem is there is a whole lot of public misinformation about the fisa court specifically but also about the war and process generally. A lot of folks look at the fact that Michael Steele may or may not have been paid by the Democratic National committee and assumed that taint everything he says. Pedro, ordinary Law Enforcement witnesses are often paid informants. Not prove that any warrants the government obtains from that information is tainted. In fact, more often than not, it is not. That is why the real question is not what the memo says, but what was actually submitted to the fisa court, was there enough sufficient, independently corroborated information so that any concerns that we have about the provenance of this dossier would dissipate. Host is there a way to release that underlying information that does not compromise National Security . Guest certainly, we could try. Ultimately, the call is up to the president. The president has the final say on these kinds of classification and declassification questions. If he wanted to declassify the underlying application to the fisa court with appropriate reactions, blacked out passages to high sources and methods, he could do so. He could instruct the director of National Intelligence dan coats to take a shot in that direction. The fact that we are not hearing a clamor from the president or the House Intelligence Committee to release the underlying application or that they cannot release the underlying application, i think, is further proof that this whole charade has little to do with transparency and a lot to do with fulfilling a preset and rather partisan political narrative. Stephen vladeck joining us from the university of texas, joining us from austin, texas. Questionst to ask him about the memo, what it does to the larger aspect of our investigation and other related matters, 202 7488001 four republicans. 202 7488002 for democrats. 202 7488003 four independents. Did the onus on those presenting it clearly present where the basis of this information was coming from . Guest to a point. It is incumbent upon any Law Enforcement officer apply to a court for a warrant to provide some information about the identity of the informant. There are so many cases where the police go to a court and get a warrant based on information from a clearly biased informant. The reason for that is not because nothing sketchy is happening. The reason is because there is some independent way to corroborate the informants information or additional evidence that goes toward this probable cause showing. In that regard, it is quite telling you are not hearing anything from devin nunes, trey republicans inr the House Intelligence Committee about the probable cause standard and whether we ought to revisit the circumstances in which the fisa or is able to determine probable cause exists. Instead it is all about this one warrant we have not seen, one application that has been withheld from the public. That is why this does not feel so much like a full throated debate about bias and transparency in the fisa court. Democrats say over the weekend, if you could get our version of events, it would clarify things that may not have been seen from the initial release of the republican memo. I doubt you have seen the document in question, but what kinds of things could democrats rely on to make that case . Guest democratic member could have been of other pieces of evidence that had nothing to do with the steel dossier that were submitted to the fisa court. We know from Google Carter page, the target of this warrant has been on tv, made public appearances where he has talked about his connections with the russian government, possibly more information like that. Quotests may also have from the application, suggesting the government did tell the fisa court that the steele dossier had been funded by a specific Political Party, which of course, would get rid of the narrative that this was a fraud perpetrated on the fisa court if they knew all along. We still wont know everything until and unless we see the underlying application. Certainly, the memo that the House Intelligence Committee is going on releasing today could add yet further information, could show us a more complete picture of what exactly the fisa court had when it agreed to authorize the surveillance of carter page. Host before we go, the calls, what does history tell us the republicans willingness to release this . Do you think that will happen . Time the House Intelligence Committee considered this very question was two weeks ago. They voted not to release mr. Schiffs memo, the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee. The political pressure may have changed. Now it would look rather heavyhanded on the part of the republicans on the Intelligence Committee given all the noise out there to not release the shift memo. Frankly, it is more likely than not at this point that the democratic memo that some would see the light of day. Again, it will still be he said, a said until folks are in position to evaluate the underlying application for themselves. That is why, from my perspective, the republicans and Senior Republicans in the house would be more directive in thinking it is the underlying application that either does or does not vindicate the president and prove this was or was not a scandal. First call for Stephen Vladeck comes from cedar rapids, iowa. Independent line, david, you are first up. That in thed read dossier, the muchmaligned dossier, that mr. Paige had been offered a 19 share in the Russian Oil Company in return for his influence on trump to lift sanctions. The person who allegedly reported that two steele was a agent,kgb intelligence secretly feeding information to steele for the dossier. Subsequently, he was suspected of reading the details in an effort to expose the whole thing unfortunately, he was found dead in the back of his car in december 2016. There was another person that was found dead as a result of his involvement. Host so you want our guest to comment on what . Caller i want to know if mr. Vladek has any information regarding this russian involvement. Host mr. Vladek, any context to that . Guest there is no question, u. S. Law enforcement, counterintelligence agencies have been following those matters closely. This is why the odds are pretty applicatione fisa against carter page was not based entirely on the steele dossier and that there was plenty of additional evidence, including, frankly, carter pages own words. Not to prove that he had committed a crime or was guilty of spying on behalf of the russians, but to create probable cause that would have allowed the government to convince any federal judge in that position to authorize further investigations, some kind of surveillance on page. What i find so remarkable about the situation, pedro, is that the republicans by getting so invested in this memo, trying to use it to discredit the mother anestigation, have picked odd figure to rest all their hopes on an carter page. Event know how we look at what is publicly out there about carter page. Forget what is in the classified fisa application, and that have that much trouble understanding why any Justice Department any political affiliation would not have been interested in pursuing an investigation against him based on what we know. Host alan is next, stevens, North Carolina. From fayetteville, go ahead. Caller my question is, why do these republicans listen to fox news this information . I am so glad that you have a ban on like this that explains the situation. It is a sham. You see what the republicans did, they put something out there for all of the Trump Supporters to eat it up, and they are eating it up. It will be egg in their face. Thank god for having a man like this. Carolina, from north thanks. Mr. Vladek, is that your assessment . Caller i would not go all the way to it is a total sham. Guest the question is what is the endgame . Was it possible the government was a bit overzealous in the fisa court and how it portrayed the steele dossier . Sure. The problem is that happens all the time. What i find more vexing is not that the house intelligence ,ommittee, mr. Nunez, mr. Gowdy are making so much about this episode. Not about thea concert they are stating which is protecting americans from abusive surveillance policies. If it was, we would be talking about reforming the fisa process, holding the government to a higher standard before it can obtain one of these warrants. Of course, this is the very House Intelligence Committee that voted last year to reauthorize one of the other parts of fisa, with the republicans almost entirely endorsing that reauthorization. My concern is that if there is really a problem here, lets talk about the problem, as opposed to turn this into some huge partisan, political scandal that is distracting from the mother investigation, which is mr. Gary himself suggested yesterday, should not be affected at all by what is in the nunes memo. Comey goes on twitter and says that the release of this information, and trusthe words destroyed with the Intelligence Committee, damage the relationship with would you agree that those things happened, didnt go that far . To see. E will have one of the things about these institutional relationships is they are very longterm. It is easy in the midst of a moment like this to lose sight of the forest in the trees. I think this episode has hurt the relationship between the House Intelligence Committee and the fbi. Keep in mind, when congress created the Intelligence Committees in the 1970s, when it created the fisa court, the purpose of both of these institutions was to provide different kinds of oversight and accountability on government spying, government surveillance. When you have the House Intelligence Committee treating every single issue that comes before it in purely partisan political terms, that may be satisfying in the moment to those whose party is represented by the majority of the House Intelligence Committee, but it does, as mr. Comey suggested, we can, if not destroy the longterm ability of the House Intelligence Committee to play this role as an independent, trusted outside objective overseer of the Intelligence Community. Ornkly, pedro, democrat republican, that is bad for everybody. Host republican line, this is gary. Yes, i would just like to ask the investigation is over collusion . Is that a crime . If they had listened to mitt romney instead of making fun of him, i dont think all of this would have been happening. Then again, the fbi did wiretap dr. Martin luther king. There is just too much going on here that dont make no sense. The thing that makes the least bit of sense is house intelligence. That is an oxymoron for me. Host mr. Pelagic, is collusion technically a crime . Guest collusion of itself is not a crime, but it is worth stressing it is a misnomer to characterize the investigation with collusion. The investigation was started as a nunez momo itself concedes, in 20, as a counterintelligence investigation, not criminal investigation, into russian interference into the election cycle. This is no longer a debate about whether there was russian interference. There are Senior Republicans in the house and senate that have come out publicly and said it is clear the russians at least attempted to interfere in the election as part of that counterintelligence investigation at all of this information about relationship between the Trump Campaign and the russian government, senior russian officials, the famous trump tower meeting, now these indictments are coming out. The question is not whether or not there was collusion between the trunk can gain and the russian government. The question is as part of the mother investigation into russian interference into the election something we should all be interested in evidence of separate and additional crimes uncovered by the special counsel. We have already seen through the indictments and plea deals a couple examples of that. Someone on twitter has questions of the democratic memo, if it is going through the same steps as the gop memo, the process of scrubbing. Can you walk us through this process . Guest frankly, we are a bit in uncharted territory. The provision that allowed this to come out had actually never been successfully invoked before in the 40year history of the House Intelligence Committee. The way the process is supposed to work, if a majority of the House Intelligence Committee votes to release information that is secret, classified, not for public release, then it goes to the white house to see if it can be declassified. So instead of just being de facto leaked to the public, it can be formally leaked to the public. That is what happened with the nunes memo. The white house and we are fully declassified the nunes memo. Few ways to compromise their, where the white house would say were not going to declassified a whole thing. Reject a little bit, then it goes to the full house to override the decision. We are still several procedural steps away from seeing the democratic memo prepared by mr. Schiff and his colleagues. Again, that memo is an important next up to those that think we have not gotten to the bottom of the carter page fisa warrant and the potential scandal that so many things it so many think it represents. Host michael in georgia, democrat line. Caller i would like you to ask your guest, how do we know the white house did not conclude with nunes like they did before . In writing the memo . This is something that the democrats at the white house was working with republicans on. Guest there is no longer would prevent at least some kind of backandforth cooperation and discussion between senior members of the House Intelligence Committee and white house. Pedro, there are strong norms about it. It is hard to be an effective overseer as the House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be, if you are running over to those you are overseeing on a regular basis, to plot strategy. The more coordination there was between the white house and mr. The House Majority on Intelligence Committee, the more alarming is from a political perspective. There is no obvious legal perspective, but further underscores how this whole episode has not been about getting to the bottom of a potential abuse of the fisa process but rather about trying to vindicate the president s own narrative, frankly, as the president himself suggested on twitter saturday morning. Preparesn mr. Nunez the memo, does he work with an enclosed group of people, does he have to work with republicans on the committee . Guest the question is how is he going to get the memo through a majority vote under section 11 g to get it moving down the chain to release. Is that he reporting basically wrote it or that his staffers werent together with folks from mr. Garys office and not much input from the committee. The question is what would have taken to get that majority vote to get it out of committee. In this case, there was enough pressure coming from the white house, other Senior Republicans in the house, even speaker ryan jumped into the fray last week and suggested the memo was proof of malfeasance. I think there was enough of a groundswell. The question is not again why the republicans moved heaven and earth to release this memo. If tellinging the full story is the goal here, the same process was not all of, the same mentality applied to the democratic response or the underlying fisa application itself which runs about 60 pages. Host if i understand it correct, there was the initial test and then three following requests. When you make those three following request, you have to present the same burden of evidence or is it a rubberstamp at that point . Guest the same standard applies to the reauthorization. The way fisa works, it is temporary authorization. You dont get to surveillance target in perpetuity. After a fixed with two of time, depending on the warrant, the government has to go back to the court and show they still have probable cause to believe that the target of the war and is an agent of a foreign power. Thehis case, it sounds like government not only went back to the fisa court went back three different times. Different four independent, life tenured federal judges agreeing with two different administrations that there was probable cause to believe carter page was an agent of a foreign power. The nunes memo have more work to do before it would convince anyone did not already want to be convinced that this was some kind of abuse. Host Stephen Vladeck teaches law at the university of texas at austin. He spent his previous career at the university of miami, and American University college of law. Thes a Senior Editor of journal of National Security law and policy, also does a podcast on these issues. Flat, where can people listen for that . Guest my colleague and i have a podcast called the national law security podcast. We are on twitter as well. Maryland, from republican line. You are on with our guest. Caller if the guest can imagine that the Political Party was coming after him, barring nothing, that he has no need to apply a war from which to launch an uninformed opinion. Matter hasi on the not taken the hard left turn that some of these other universities have advertised liberal extremism over education. Thank you for cspan. Host mr. Vladek . Guest im not sure i heard a question. The reality is on not telling people what to think about the process but the nunes memo is. Folks should have a clear understanding of the tradition here. Law enforcement is given a fair amount of difference gone before the court. This is not about the steele dossier but about the fisa court. The judge who initially approved the war against carter page and the three different judges who approved reauthorization of the same or it. Between the steele dossier and the other evidence submitted to the fisa court, to suspectable cause that carter page might be an agent of a foreign power. Dont take my word for it. Look at what carter page has said and written online, what is already public about in, and ask whether it is clear to you that this was all a fictitious made of scandal by the democrats. It is hard to believe the more you dive into the record. Host delray beach, florida. Independent line, margaret. Think your vladek, i comment a few minutes ago, that only anybody looking to find something would find something what is amazing to me is we are talking with any seriousness about the judges accepting this evidence when the dossier was included, whether or not there was other evidence included, the fact that they included a , isier and a false report would use your argument in a mirror image. They could prove that the democrats created this and there would still be a way for all of the liberals in the world to prove otherwise. They weaponize the irs. We had Loretta Lynch on a plane with bill clinton. We have Hillary Clinton, we can prove they interrupted the nomination process from Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. But donald trump, who could not breathe in without someone accusing him of something, i would say most of the american feed want to know other than. Lot more people who want to know why the warrant was found. You are all mistaken if you think the American Public will stand for the democrats deciding what we think should be important and then try to downplay it. Ok, margaret. We will let him respond. Guest im not quite clear on where we are told you what is important. The key is, the steele dossier, the claim is not that it is false, but that it is bias. As someone who studied the fisa for a better part of a decade, that knows more about law when itent and really, comes to common applications for surveillance, not partisan political violence, but maybe this informant is out to get somebody, or maybe a Family Member does not like another Family Member. The question is not whether there was bias, but whether there was reason to doubt the actual award issued was invalid, obtained based on a fraud of the court. Once again, the question everyone should be asking themselves, whatever your partisan political affiliation, whatever you think about american politics right now, is whether you believe, based on the four pages of the nunes memo, that four different federal judges in four different points in time could not have found probable cause to believe that carter page was not an agent of a foreign power and whether that is an assessment we can make without seeing all of the other evidence submitted to the fisa court five first the obama and the Trump Administration. Part of what is frustrating about this conversation is that Everyone Wants to inject their own political spin into what is actually a relatively straight over legal question. Is the warrant valid . Was there probable cause to believe carter page was an agent of a foreign power . Given what we know about him, what we know about the warrant, i dont know how we can be so sure it was not at this point. I dont think the nunes memo changes that. That evidence over time, if they knew the full scope of his office dossier, the funding, it would not have changed anything for them . Guest certainly, there is more we can know. Again, this is why this scandal will never go away until folks can see the full fisa application. Court hasay the fisa worked historically, it would be a radical break on precedent and tradition for the government to rely solely on, and for the fisa court to accept an application based on only one dossier like the steele dossier. The question is what is more likely . Different federal judges received applications from two different administration, made a dramatic right turn from prior practice under fisa and issued a warning under an american citizen based on this one dossier . Or is it more likely that there was substantial Additional Information that the nunes memo cherry picked from the underlying application, and that it resolve the whole thing, we would see a completely ordinary work west from this extraordinary court, and not a scandal, but rather the government doing the best it could in a difficult situation. Host when a judge receives all of this information, how much time does he have to get into it before decision has to be made . Guest it is up to him. In the area, judges are supposed to move with a fair amount of dispatch, but unless the government is invoking one of the special emergency provisions of fisa, and it has not suggested it has, the judge can take his time. We know there are prior examples of judges on the fisa court going back to the government and saying, this is not enough, i need more. The notion that the judges here are all in cahoots with the Justice Department from both the obama and Trump Administration, i think, requires a lot more substantiation than what little you see in the nunes memo as released on friday. Host rome, georgia. Republican line. Barry, you are next. Caller i just wanted to mention, the professor has not mentioned carter page was approached by the fbi before he joined the Trump Campaign. But afterwards, when he was affiliated with the can aid, the fbi did not want trump not to confide in carter. Secondly, the professor talked about the findings of probable cause by the fisa court. Admissionsd for the made in the application or the standard is, this zero, you cannot make those kinds of admissions. Re is not a proper legal finding of probable cause. Host thank you for that. Mr. Vladek, go ahead. Guest on the second point, that is just not true. It is true in a criminal trial defendants have a right to be confronted with all of the potential exculpatory evidence against them. That is in the due process clause, not a right that attaches to search warrant. The government is allowed, for better or worse, to present relatively onesided views of the case to a court when trying to establish a warrant. As you know, these proceedings are ex parte meetings, just the government and the judge, known representing the target. We dont know much about what actually goes on in those conversations. If this is the reason, the fulcrum point to have a National Conversation about how easy it is for the government to get search warrant, great. I think that conversation is decades overdue. But frankly, the Republican Leadership in congress is not especially interested in that conversation, as opposed to any conversation that makes the is it look good and makes his predecessor look bad. If we want to have a conversation about reforming the rosses, lets have the House Intelligence Committee hold hearings about the probable cause standard and whether we could be rethinking what kind of evidence can and cannot satisfy that standard. You have not heard any suggestions to that effect from mr. Nunez or mr. Gowdy or other republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. I think that is a rather telling omission on their part. Host as far as best practices, it is reforms would take place, should there be a lawyer to represent the people of the United States . Guest its a great question, there has been discussion in the fisa courts of including a special advocate who would appear in these cases to represent, if not the interest of the people, then at least the interest of the target. That is a worthwhile conversation. In the fisa context, it may make sense. The usa freedom act, the fisa reform legislation takes a half step in that direction, allows for the participation of a friend of the court, in at least some of the more complicated fisa cases. But again, lets have a conference conversation about search warrants as opposed to, oh my god, there is gambling going on in this establishment. This is how or two usually work. The fact that it worked in this context does not a scandal make. This is sean in North Carolina, on the line for democrats. Caller thank you for having me. God bless america. Everyonesuggestion for on how we can in this very shortly. The president is the president. He could end this stuff with russia. All he would have to do is simply sit down with the American People and answer the questions. Senator,ready asked my senator burr. We could ask nunes, paul ryan, everyone involved, everyone to sit down in front of a republicanregistered combat marine and answer the questions. What is the problem . The president could end this. He has the power to do that. Thank you. Host Stephen Vladeck . Guest the president has a lot of power here, including the power to declassify the underlying fisa application. One of the most interesting nuggets in the nunes memo was at the end, where it talks about how the counterintelligence investigation in a russian interference in the election had begun actually well before the first application for a fisa warrant against carter page. I think that reveals a larger point here. There was a broader investigation into russian interference that started before this fisa warned was obtained, that went on after, still going on to this day. Whatever you think about the nunes memo, the investigation is still there. This one fisa warrant does not hold that into account. The caller is right, if the president really wanted to end this, facilitate a public conversation about what really happened, there are ways for him to do it. The reason why you are seeing what you are seeing is because there is either one of two things, he believed that this is really a witchhunt and that someone will invent evidence proving some kind of culpability on the part of the president or those close to him, or that e, and thatthere ther this is a coordinated effort of distraction and misdirection and delegitimization to mitigate the damage if and when special counsel mueller gets to the point where the indictments are hitting closer to home. It is a degree to which one it is but those are the options. Oft what is the inclusion papadopoulos say that the republicans are making the case that this was happening before this fisa process was happening and there should be really separation of the two within this document . Guest i think you heard that from mr. Galley on the sunday shows. The reality is the memo does not really bear upon the broader legitimacy of the mother investigation. That investigation had started indirectly before the fisa application to carter page, not just derived from the carter page fisa application. Even if you accept at face value that the nunes says what it says, and everything is true, that does not get us to wear a lot of folks had hoped to be the bottom line, which is exoneration for the president. And it does not prove that there wasnt. Again, the investigation should be allowed to run its course, let the chips fall where it may. If folks are that concerned about the fisa process, lets have that conversation. Host alabama, republican line. Vladek, my memory, back in july 2016, there was a report oppressed mr. Trump as to where hillarys emails were. She had seven or eight times. From hisot satisfied answer until they got it in a format to turn it around to see that he was asking the russians to intervene in the election. I would like for the American Public to hear that all over again. From the beginning of this. I think there is a horrible witchhunt going on here. I do believe we have difficulties with the dnc and russians. Host that was tina. Mr. Vladek, any response . Guest it is just not true that the first time President Trump was asked about how he had claimed to get access to some of hillary and ins emails, that that is when the investigation began. It is now clear the investigation began before that point, and that it was not directly about thencandidate now President Trump, but more about the signs of interference in media, advertising by the russian government, russian intelligence agencies, and only expanded from there. Folks are going to believe what they want to believe but there is no love any question, even according to Senior Republicans in the house and senate, that the russians attempted to interfere in the election. Whatver you take about that says about President Trump is fine but we need to stop debating whether there was russian interference. There was. The question is to what extent, is anyone, democrat or republican, culpable for that interference. Resume of late, that is what the mother investigation is trying to establish. Host killeen, texas, democrats line. Caroline, high. Caller the first thing i heard is Justice Roberts takes the judges for the fisa court. I wonder if that is true. The biggest thing i have is a concern that chris hayes interviewed carter page back in october, and at that time, he said ryan was going to come up with a memo. How did he know that back in october . Host mr. Vladek, to start the fisa judges themselves, how are they picked . Guest the fisa court is comprised of 11 already sitting Federal District judges. Folks who have been nominated by any president , confirmed by the senate. Then they are specifically chosen by the chief justice of the United States, here john roberts, to be designated to the fisa court for a sevenyour term. You have a situation where the judge was nominated to their District Court judge it by one of the last couple president s, but then always assigned to the fisa court by chief Justice Roberts. Further dissipates the chart that we started to see over the weekend that we should not trust these fisa judges, especially those appointed by president obama. The chief justice is the one that puts them on the fisa court. Again, theer point, real question is not so much the timing. It has always been part of the House Intelligence Committees plan to try to raise concerns about the carter page fisa application and everything that followed from it. The real question is why our folks buying it, given how much objective information is out there to show that, first of all, the fisa warrant was probably purposely legitimate, but even if it wasnt, that still doesnt call into question the Mueller Investigation, as trey gowdy himself suggested yesterday. I think we are a little bit inclined to over collapse what ought to be different conversations, given the nature of our contemporary political climate, given the nature of the Current Media cycle. Host our guest is Stephen Vladeck of the university of texas austin. If you want to find the website and more about him, thank you for your time this morning. Guest always a pleasure to be with you. Host joining us now on the set is christopher pharrell with Judicial Watch, their investigation and research director. The point that the last guest was making about you looking at this release of the memo in uw separate phases, not necessarily and muellercess investigation, is that something you would agree with . Guest there are a lot of moving pieces here. If you want to move back to a higher level, you can say, what has been the success rate of this entire affair as a Russian Active Measures Campaign . If the goal was to disrupt and confuse and generate all sorts of consternation and figure wanting, then the russians have been quite successful. That is kind of a larger question. We have an internal domestic question politically because this is obviously an or mislead with ae and hot issue lot of fingerpointing and claims, counterclaims. That will play itself out. We will get to the truth out some point. The larger question is, for the last 100 years, whether the soviet union or the russians, in one form politically or another, they have been very aggressive in active measures campaigns, influence operations, informational warfare, and were seeing the byproduct now. Of thehat do you think quality of the republican memo put out last week . Guest to me, it is pretty factually based. I have looked at the claims that were made, we have seen the Text Messages of people like mr. Strauch, his girlfriend. In either happened or it did not. That is partially why Judicial Watch has been suing to gain access to the actual fisa warrants themselves. Rather than relying on the representations of mr. Nunes or mr. Schiff saying this is all a lie, lets get it all public. Lets get these fisa warrants and let the public review them themselves. The way they are structured, there is an underlying sworn affidavit from a special david or attorney, fbi attorney or doj attorney, that lays out the case. Then there is an enclosure to the warrant application itself, which is executed by a Deputy Attorney general or higher. Even the attorney general himself. Saying we need access to this because the subject is either an agent of a foreign power, or is a terrorist, both are applicable , and let see what the case was, what the statements are. Because in this case, they have relied upon, Deputy Director mccabe said they relied on this steele dossier. That one under oath that is true. But if there is more, what is it . When they have or do these ,pplications for the warrants they, meaning the department of justice and fbi, had an affirmative obligation to update and inform the court, each judge, the four judges involved this is my understanding to perfect the record. So what did they submit . Lets see what it is. Host our guest is with us for about 45 minutes if you want to ask about the release of this memo, what it does for the fisa process, larger muller investigation. For republicans. 202 7488002 for democrats. 202 7488003 four independents. We do it as an educational foundation. Our goal is to educate the public about the operations of government. We make very aggressive use of the freedom of information act foia, we are the largest foia litigator in the country. We filed for your requests and also litigate them. So our goal is really government accountability. That is what we are looking for. Philosophically, we are conservative, but we are nonpartisan, in the sense that we never endorse parties or legislation. We cover this from a philosophical point of view, as one would argue, the aclu comes from more of a left point of view. Host so when you hear the president say that this memo totally vindicates me when it comes to the larger aspect of the Mueller Investigation, your point would be guest i have yet to hear anyone articulate the criminal predicate for the mother investigation and what crime was committed . Our department of justice, we identified a crime, find suspects, then we narrowed it down to eat we bring an indictment or we dont. In this case, it appears we have identified suspects, and now we are going to investigate until we find the crime. That is kind of upside down. That is not historically the way we operate. With respect to the Hillary Clinton email issue, i can tell mishandling National Defense information. I can articulate a crime, explained the elements of the crime, show you how mrs. Clinton violated each and every one of those. I say that because of my past professional life, i was a special agent of army counterintelligence, so i have investigated these cases, i have successfully have people prosecuted. I know what that is. When i look at mueller and i ,ear people say collusion, ok what you may mean is conspiracy. Collusion itself is not a crime. But what is the underlying criminal predicate . What are you alleging was done unlawfully . I have yet to hear anyone say what the crime is. Host back to your request for the information of underlying information, how do you release that instill maintain concerns of National Security quality . Guest when it comes to anything with classified information, the two things that our greatest concern for any public release our sources and methods. That is what people hear over and over. When they talk about sources, it is what is the means by which the intelligence was collected. Whether it is human intelligence, signals intelligence, all of these various flavors of intelligence. What was the technique, what was the source . In human intelligence, obviously, we dont want to put anybody in jeopardy who is reporting to us. We dont want to compromise technical collection it islities, whether signals intelligence or imagery, those sorts of things. But once you have taken away the sources and methods, then it is really just a narrative of what was the information gleaned. President ,rt, the the agencies themselves enjoy abroad discretionary power to release stuff. They may wish to redact a name here or there, but an awful lot of this can be released on a discretionary basis. A topic of methods, talking about the steele dossier, how it was funded and things like that, seems to suggest, even if those things were revealed out in full in the process of the fisa court applying these applications, there has to be more to base these judgments. Do you buy the judgment . Guest in part. That argument can be made in a valid way but we all three have the sworn declarations of mr. Mccain saying the fisa warrant was entirely dependent on the steele dossier. There is one point that i would disagree with the prior guest. He makes a distinction between criminal investigations and counterintelligence investigations. That is a distinction without a difference. Counterintelligence investigations are National Security crime. They are criminal investigations. So there are times when people throw that out as being sort of a, well, it does not appear would it is not what it appears to be. National intelligence crimes are crimes. I would disagree with the prior guest on that. There are a lot of people sitting in jail on counterintelligence investigations. Host first call for christopher ofarrell is philip in michigan. Democrat line. Go ahead, you are on. My answer to the previous caller is the opposite idea. The president should come on and go, im going to take the fifth amendment. I have a right to take the fifth amendment. He should announce that he will do so in a double blow all of the air out of the issue. If clinton had taken the fifth, it would have destroyed the whole thing, they would have never been able to impeach clinton. President when it comes to the information that we talked about, can the president just release it at will . Guest he has absolute Discretionary Authority with respect to classified information. The thing that i always harken back to is president carter made the Intelligence Community crazy when he got up in a Campaign Event in miami and started discussing National Intelligence collection platforms from satellites. That was sort of a precedentsetting event. His authority was, i am the president , i can do it. That is the case. Host nashville, tennessee. Republican line. Caller good morning. My point on this, the fisa permissione the fbi to wiretap, which they had not permission to do in all of the other time that they had spent on mr. Page. Them interestave to the Trump Campaign to then chain react and pick up conversations of anybody and everybody that page was talking to. That is what their interest was, not in what russians were being what different members of the campaign had to say. So they were looking for a whole lot more than just page. I think it was a real travesty of what happened. They keep talking about four different judges. Im not so sure it was. Im not sure this guest, or the previous guest, who mentioned it, knows if it was the four judges. Host we will let the guests respond. Guest my reference to those four judges is based on public reporting. Tot i know is we have sued get those records, so we will find out if there are four different judges, however many are out there. Angle of thege whole foundation of the warrant is interesting. Based on my research, mr. Page had no official position with the campaign. He is identified as an advisor, but from what i understand, he held no office, did not have a desk, phone number, he was sort of a volunteer advisor. Im always curious about the language used in how people are characterized. I dont know how close he really ever was to the inner circle of the Trump Campaign. I think he sort of self identified as, im an advisor. I think his name had been used, but from my understanding, he ,eld no actual position, title business card, desk, office that is not my understanding which is interesting. Host what did you make of the document released from the last paragraph talking about George Papadopoulos as the trigger to this whole thing . Guest it is a hearsay thing. There is a guy that heard something from a bar pretty thin stuff. Since 2013 concerned are respect to how warrants obtained for these National Security questions. I go back to the former fox journalist james rosen and the Justice Departments efforts to gain access to his phone records , and even to his parents phones records. A declaration was made by an fbi special agent and then confirmed by the attorney general, and the claim of the james rosen was an agent of a foreign power and a flight risk. I dont think he was either. He was a fox News Reporter who was working on a story at the state department about korea. They may not like the journalist asking questions about things that they would rather not discuss, but that is a separate issue. That is not saying he is espionage and a flight risk. They submitted sworn declarations to a court in order to gain access to his records. The holder Justice Department did the same thing with the Associated Press also reporting around may 2013. They were clearly lying, making false and misleading statements in order to obtain warrants. There is a track record here, this is not anything new. That is the disturbing part. We now have evidence over a couple of administrations that the Justice Department and fbi would lie under oath to judges to get warrants. That is the lesson here, that is the morning that these powers are being abused at at registered level outrageous level of little or no account ability. A viewer on twitter referencing the steele dossier in an effort to gain the warrant. Our people laboring under the missing cap session misconception that a flawed source can never provide the basis of a worn application and issue . Guest even a stopped clock is right twice a day. A source routing information can be deeply flawed and troubled and all sorts of ways, particularly criminal cases, if Law Enforcement only. With boy scouts, they would never developed any information. Sometimes there are bad guys out there that you would talk to or recruit or in some might develop information from that would result in a war and being sworn. Ut, advanced but there is a balancing test here and a credibility question here. If you have information coming that isunsavory source, why you need to check and double check and develop other sources. Sometimes you dont have another source. Sometimes the only information you have is from somebody who is imperfect or defective in some way. End does not necessarily the investigation, just makes you work harder. When it applies to the steele dossier, everything behind it, revealed, do you think that a judge would have allowed it, would have been proper, would that have been bolstered by other things the judge may have access to . Narrative, it doesnt seem legitimate. Host youre after the documents, the democrats say, release the documents. It, i want all for all the cards on the table. Pointingd of the finger and hysteria, you know, i want this whole thing blown out to the open. If there is something there, great, indict someone. Get a grand jury, lets go to trial. m tired of sort of rumor and inuendo. Yeah, but. You know. Muellers r. Investigation so far, i mean, he may have had a couple of and general flynn 1001, ve put out 18usc this is pretty thin stuff. Like i said, take a big step it, i think k at putin and the russians are ooking because they have so manipulated the american mudissent ystem and so and really that is the larger question. The ore concerned about United States than the efforts of various political operatives a system. Manipulate host Christopher Farrell joining us. Vernon in texas, independent line, go ahead. Caller good morning. Christopher farrell, thank you for this watch. Thanks. Caller id like to say two things, first of all, we begin narratives all the time. In the case of the memo, when it out, it was initially to do this has nothing with anything, but the fact that oversight ee had responsibility for the f. B. I. Department of justice nd what they are doing and in their disclosure, to do with the resentation of facts, so that we can determine whether or not eople were lie whenning they submitted information to the fisa court. About that. Lk as far as the narrative goes. Is a her narrative, that false one and has to do, again, thank you, mr. Farrell, you made pretty well here, ive been on the phone waiting. The fact s back to that the russians getting electoral system is nothing new. Nothing new at all. Thanks. Ay, caller, guest yeah, the caller makes a great point. Soviet union or modernday russia, they have heir interests and their objectives. They are going to do what they think are in their best first interest, so we shouldnt be surprised they attempt to number of the system. O back to 1933, and f. D. R. , granting diplomatic status to the soviet union. Russians literally laughed at us, sufficient documentation that entire november 33 russians are quite canny and quite sophisticated in efforts to advance their agenda and if were busy, you now, chasing our tails and attacking each other, theyre quite pleased with that. Dave, from michigan, democrats line. Hello. Caller hello, good morning. Listen. This is kind of stunning, what your guest is saying here. A s obviously, this is not nonpartisan attitude, you are saying that theres not evidence collusion, lets wait until the investigation is done. Do you think the russian intrusion was a hoax . Think the russians certainly had all sorts of fact, trying ton affect the outcome of our election, they have been doing 100 years, nothing new about it. The callers remark about someone to need tell me, identify for me, the crime, what is the criminal that has occurred . No one can articulate it, no one. Mueller hasnt. Tell me what occurred and what for nlawful and identify me, the criminal act and then doneuspects you think have something. Host give me for instance, when rise to conspiracy . Guest you need to have first of all, a great example, ill one. You general flynn, for whatever an on, pled out to information, sort of a complaint, but nonetheless, an nformation is what they call it, under u. S. Code section 1001, false official statement. Unlawful to lie to a federal agent who is interviewing you. Happens, hen that based on my personal experience, but also other colleagues of federal agents, normally when that happens, in 1001 claim, the false official statement, claim and371, which is conspiracy some other criminal, whether it is fraud or some other criminal act. Being is, i catch you, in a falsehood, and i say, well, who else are you working with . You say, i was working with and tony. K okay. Now ive got the conspiracy. What were you and bill and frank and tony doing . And then they say, well, we were defrauding the company. We stole money or products or phonied up the books. Crime. Is the right . But when you bring false fficial statement charge against somebody, with no conspiracy count, and no it is really me, pretty thin stuff in the world of criminal prosecutions. Prosecutors want indictments and convictions, they are looking for scalps, that is the way they operate. And when you go with a false charge, its ment here isst of the rungs, the point im trying to make f. Im a federal agent, so forewing you and i do wo hours, ill find something that you said that is inconsistent one time you said you said from and i will drill down on that and say you made misleading statements attempting to that is the situation here with general flynn. Think, very wrongheadedly, obviously made out to or and hes pled it and hes responsible for his actions. Forgive or ng to make an excuse for that, but all im saying, for the average there, if atizen out federal agent is interviewing you for a couple of hours, if to, theyve got a false official statement claim. Host richmond, virginia, next ican line, mike is for our guest Christopher Farrell. Hi. Caller hi, guys. All the i appreciate fine legal points that you are discussing here. Revolves , this all around motivation. Back at what ook regards to ot just the Mueller Investigation or the but rathersituation, the entirety of what happened in months leading up to the we saw plainly that there is something very wrong the Justice Departme department excuse me, in the f. B. I. Because on the 5th of july of 2016, mr. Comey stood up and all of us all the crimes Hillary Clinton committed and would be no there indictment for all these crimes. When he following day, Trey Trey Gowdy was questioning was saying, did commit this crime that violated this statute, comey said, yes d. She commit hat crime and comey said yes, and still there was not going to be any indictment. Point something ad happened at the f. B. I. That we really, as a nation, didnt want to face. I have no, no, caller, well leave it there, mr. Farrell. The excellent point by caller. Mr. Comeys press briefing on the 5th of july, he essentially the first 13 and a half minutes of the 15minute briefing, he laid out all of the the crime of 18usc ection 793 f, mishandling National Defense information. Identified each element of the crime. He gave examples of how mrs. And her circle of ssociates violated that, quite specifically. And then towards the end, he out of thin air, a new intent. , which was that particular crime that i just highlighted, i dont want repeating, but it is important, there is no requirement for intent in that mishandling of National Defense information. It is kind of unique, not unusual, no t requirement for intent. He manufactured a new standard threshold for satisfying the element of the crime. Way beyond the scope as an investigator and made the decision of the attorney general going to no, were not prosecute it. Abhorrent, nothing else like it in the criminal justice history, nowhere. Guest serves with Judicial Watch, their investigation and research irector, previous career, was military intelligence officer, specialize nothing counter ntelligence and human intelligence. Huntington, west virginia, independent line, pat is next. Good morning. Go ahead. Caller good morning, pedro. I dont want to go into the idea about when this fellow is nonpartisan or anything like that. What id like to ask is this f. I runpublic official, and a contract nd steer toward that business by using my ffice, that is clearly against the law. I want to ask him is this. Every weekend trump goes down to maralago, stays i want to ask h im sure he houses a lot of his and some of his enterouge with him that travels with him, he profits, puts money his pocket for that, isnt that clear violation of the have writtenuse we into our laws and how come nobody is drilling down on this tied up in all this stuff nobody can come to a serious conclusion about . Tell host got it, pat, thank you. Guest a few things. Watch has requested and continues to request all travel costs and documents with respect to the president s travel, whether down to florida else. Where were try towing provide accountability on travel cost the requency and all of related things like that. For example, when president big , obviously there is a sort of tail that gos with that, costs and any number of things. Documents, those unfortunately we often have to litigate, sue, to compel the government to produce those but thats fine. Were happy to do it. Nd so, all those costs, were trying to account for. I dont think the president travels every weekend to florida, the caller predicated goes s every weekend he there. You know emolie nt ation of there . Guest i have a hard time getting there, i dont believe is so. Thats his property and his home, he is allowed to go there. Parallel. Former Vice President biden, had delaware and i guess a guest house on the property that to secret service used secure the facility and i think he was actually charging the of et service for the use the guest house. I mean, you could say, ahha, money. King emolment ot what the clause is talking about. It gets sticky when you have people with property and require secure them and they have to have staff. The requirements of the office ant be dispensed with simply because the guy has a large property. Does Christopher Farrell eel the judge from fisa court can on the f. B. I. . Guest if hes been mislead sdpauls misleading statements, manipulated the ecord, as they have and we discussed two cases from 2013, they clearly did. Then, yeah. A bad ie to a court tis idea. Host in washington, d. C. , democrats line for Christopher Farrell. Go ahead. Caller yes, is mr. Farrell an attorney, first . An attorney. Ot caller thats good. Then what happens is your has a conservative agenda that it wants to promote focus from theft trump situation to clinton. Retired colonel had me look up executive order 13526 when the came out about clinton. Nd part one, section 1. 3 provides clinton is designated original originator and it she had authority to classify, declassify information you. What have here is my concern. The president just recently information. Why isnt Judicial Watch asking rump to do the same thing with the fisa warrant . The fisadeclassify all warrants related to this case and you dont have to go through in order to accomplish that goal. Caller. Kay, thanks, guest not entirely that simple warrants themselves are judicial or generate themselves from the department go before this court. Did ask and we unfortunately lost in court last week. Boseburg to ge release the comey memos, joined agencies, cnn, and others. Look, lets get to the bottom of all. Elease it fisa boseburg, who also court, interestingly, declined memos. Ase all the comey he has his reasoning and hes issued his order, we will pursue them legally. Warrants, he fisa process, we have for them, sued to gain access to them. Legal means very available to obtain this information and to make it public, because from our point of view, more that is public concern thanksgiving whole better. He host previous guest talked about this issue being call for at least the or process, would you agree with that . F so, what could be changed to improve the process . Guest yeah, i heard a short piece of that. There needs to be far greater skepticism with respect o sort of the underlying documentation and frankly the willingness of both the f. B. I. Tod. O. J. To lie. Horrendous, need to be prosecution for that. The fact Government Official these sorts of things and shrug and go off and do what they want is outrageous. For indictments of those persons, you know, there consequences. We cant go through this entire walk l and have everybody away and say, well, gee, that was tough. There have to be legal consequences, i dont care where it goes. If there are people in d. O. J. Or or other agency, for example, we have this whole thing, corollary to what were today, the ut unmasking controversy. The fact it is true, that former u. S. Ambassador to the u. N. Made 200 someodd unmasking outrageous abuse of power. Or her ower fshe assistants abused that system, you dont hear a word about anymore. G what happened with that . Just before the new year, before a lot of there was huff and puff in the news about working ial informant on the uranium 1 case. He was supposed to come forward testimony. Ublic i havent heard a peep there is related unresolved, corollary scandals tied to this, where there is a burst of amount of or sudden interest and then everyone gets amnesia. Im not ave amnesia, going to forget it. We will continue to pursue it. Theres got to be accountability, i dont care where it goes or who gets muddied, we just need straight answers, that is the frustrating hing with the fisa court and that is why we have to get the records ourselves. Aybe there needs to be a advocate, like your previous uest said bring in disinterested third party who knows the law and knows the ask m and they get to inconvenient questions, ask tough, awkward question. How do you know that . Why is this in the application, but this isnt . Devils advocate, i think there may be a place for that. Line, mark in an bensalem, pennsylvania. Morning, good morning. Interested why we are getting in the fine details of the fisa question is before us. We know there was collusion, we know the Mueller Investigation s not doing what they are supposed to because of the fact we had the heads of the f. B. I. Agencies lie her before congress saying that not undermp staff was investigation and that was a latant lie and proved by this document that the republicans have just put out. Secondarily, we know where all problems came from, this teele dossier and fusion gps, the problems initiated from there. Yet, mueller is not doing anything to investigate that. Clearly hes not interested in getting to where conspiracy n was or or russian involvement, it all stems from that. Even don jr. , stem from gps, they made the lawyer and made meet with them before and after, it was set up by them and paid for by Hillary Clinton. Know why were wasting was used, that is all we have to. Host that is all we have to know, he says. Agree, in general, with what hes saying, but documentation is absolutely critical. And the reason why is it because this is shorthand thing i tell people lie, documents dont. I want documentary evidence, point of view. Y but i think interestingly, he made a passing reference to this respect to the president s son. Russian attorney who met with the president s son at rump tower, doesnt get enough attention, but is interesting, urious phenomena, the fusion gps people met with her beforehand, and then dispatched into the meeting and then she had a meeting with trump out of nd then she came the meeting and was reportedly met again by fusion gps people. Intelligence world, that is called dispatch, action and debriefing, it leads one to question exactly what the elationships were and who is reporting to who and what sort of information was trying to be very ped of the its curious. We have east rock and age Text Messages, mccabes involvement with the via his with mccaul. His is murky stuff, for somebody to say it is coincidental, talking about having with and and he an shs insurance policy. Hear deep state apply to this, something you agree with . Guest in this case, yes, there of professional political that operates outside of what the Election Results may or may not be. There is also literally Hundreds Administration schedule c political pointees who are operating in the government. Now you could say that is ecause President Trump hasnt appointed enough people or the right people or whatever, true. Ut people dont realize that, you know, the government sort of Political Class in washington, d. C. , they have institutional of authority and power and leverage nd no matter who comes in or out of office, theyre there for ecades and that is what every administration faces whether the goes sort of willingness along or just makes mistakes and entirely cooperate with the new administration, big challenge. Dana in ts go to california, independent line. Caller good morning, mr. Farrell. Quick questions. The first is, what are the legal the memo, one f Intelligence Committee after nother keep look intoing more and more allegations and probably obtained information . Is second question i have does this not cast out on the entire institution of the f. B. I. And their methods . And isnt that a bit of a stretch to make . The third question is, dont you think accountability works politicians and the f. B. I. , because both groups the law . E who uphold anyway, thank you very much for taking my call. Host sure. So implication of the are that there was an abuse of the system in process. It appears to have been deliberate thoughtful literally. How that plays out, i think is a attorney general has now referred to the d. O. J. O. I. G. The is my interpretation of nunes memo w. Respect to institutional problems at department of justice and f. B. I. , yeah, there really needs to be a house cleaning. I dont he kind of, know whether it is sad or shocking or both. This is sort of abuse or concerted effort, lets just senior level within d. O. J. And f. B. I. Is byproduct washington hot house environment at headquarters, but it is also a case where field offices around the country there has been of normally abuse warrantapproved activity, such surveillance, monitoring, mail cover, those sorts of things. I can point a finger at el paso, of or outrageous amount had been, past tense, until my memory of this ends about four ago, outrageous abuse of person constitutional rights, weve investigated it, to senator grassley, enter of an investigation, f. B. I. Office in el paso is rats nest of corruption. It is not alone. People, when given extraordinary power and extraordinary means to collect use it, it theyll is very rare the government does ot fully use all the powers vested to it. And that is subject to abuse. Point on accountability, i couldnt agree more, you know. He politician seems to be accountable, but just so also he civil servants, there are trusted servants, right . Were them ign and give authority and ability to serve us, when they start using it for is a own purposes, that very grave abuse. Host democrats say release of he memo on the republican side damaged National Security on a lot of fronts. What do you think approximate that argument . Is a little schizophrenia, they were howling it would be the end of the world of National Security issues were going to be isclosed and it would be damaging and once it was released, ill quote mr. Comey, what. Is that all you got . He made some sort of flippant remark. The memo, release of there was hysteria and hand ringing and my goodness, it is world. Of the then the memo comes out and everyone knocks the memo and deal, who s no big cares tis all phony anyway. You cant have it both ways, of the t was the end so it r so what, i mean, is posturing, kabuki theater, it maneuvering and ritualized behavior, just for political advantage. The underlying question about did something occur or to be at is what has answered. Host go to our last call that, is jim in west virginia, line. Ats caller yes. I appreciate mr. Farrell being i mean, some things he said, he strikes me as pretty disingenuous, typical taking a typical republican stance and anything that conservatives do, its righteous. Anything democrats do, my, there is something underhanded. Of hillary ing clinton, first look back at four years of republicans roasting her slowly on barbecue pit something wrong, trying to find something wrong, found w, certainly they out through the benghazi proceedings after four years, wow, she used a private server. Would ask, as an earlier caller did, she was a secretary of state. You know dshe do anything wrong hrough things that were leaked throu d. N. C. Andhacking of be at hearings and testimony, what did she do wrong . Host let him answer. Guest to start off, i am not a republican. Of any a member Political Party. The notion that im being disingenuous, i find to be telling you what i think and feel and i have lots it up. Mentation to back with respect to mrs. Clinton, Inspector General of the Intelligence Community conducted heir own investigation and identified 22 topsecret sensitive Department Information emails that transmitted her server. He establish the server, in my opinion to avoid the freedom of information act and shes in usc section 97f mishandling of National Defense information. There are people sitting in prison for doing a tiny fraction her associates did. It there. Eave host Christopher Farrell of Judicial Watch, director of research, ion at Judicial Watch. Org, the website. Thanks for your time. Pedro. Thank you, host open phones until the end of the program. 2027488000 frepublicans, democrats. 1 for 2027488002 for independents, well take those when we come back. Tuesday morning, were live in jackson, mississippi, for the on the cspan b50 capitals tour. Jim hood will be our guest during washington journal. 9 30 a. M. Eastern. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Television Companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Communicators,he were in las vegas for the second part of coverage from the Consumer Electronics show. Each year Tech Companies unveil products and give insight what is ahead. He latest on robot and drone Technology Using sophisticated cameras, watch communicators cspan2. 8 eastern on temperature cspans landmark series cases returns next month with a cases. Supreme Court Historians and experts join us issues and personal stories behind significant decisions. Urt live at 9 p. M. Eastern, help you etter understand each case, we have a companion guide written by journalist tony morrow, cases volume 2, the book costs 8. 95, plus shiping and handling. Go to cspan. Org landmark cases. Washington journal continues. Host again, open phones, if you want to join us, call us on the line. Post on social media avenues at twitter, at cspanwj, and post on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan. Poston courier highlights train crash from yesterday. Thf mornings headline, 116. Ing two, injuries followup story about Safety Technology saying americas away from re years fully adopting technology crashes likerevent sundays fatal collision. The public has no way of knowing prevention system is up and running or where it isnt. Plans for nationwide system as positive train control, named technology that slow speeding trains, prevent headon collision and engineers to switches set in the wrong direction. He chairman of the National Safety board said positive train control was designed to prevent his kind of accident, determining whether it was installed in the site is part of the federal investigators work. News on to the daily its front pages, talk about nafta. This is jack torrey, out of washington, when negotiators little progress on revising freetrade agreement, there is farmers ears among lucrative he 1994 pipeline to canada and mexico, although many financial analysts believe in court eventually will be reached. Resident donald trump failed nafta and other freetrade agreement claiming they left factories ttered throughout ohio, michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. Phones, rob, en old forge, pennsylvania, republican line. Go ahead. Ng, caller good morning. You know, im really disgusted situation. Ole i really believe that this was against trump. Want to say something, i was thinking during the campaign, all the debates that hillary had hillary kept ump, mentioning russia interfering elections and intelligence agencies about the that igence agencies and donald trump didnt believe them. Ell, when the intelligence agencies were given the reports, was getting hillary more information, they were working together. As day and for people to say they dont see adam ng going on here and schiff, hes been leaking every goesthere is a meeting, he out and leaks, somethings got to be done. I hope they get to the bottom of not right. Host on the independent line, carlsbad, new , mexico. Aller yes, just curious with all of the warrants, has anything been found about carter page where hes guilty of anything, i havent heard anything about that, just curious about that. Host our guest is gone, but a ll followup, cnbc has story with dow jones and stock market just opening, currently 320 points story, lower, stocks resume fridays selloff, dow jones tropped and financials leading decliners, nasdaq pulled back 1 . Ronald in baltimore, maryland, democrats line. Ahead. Mr. Farrell made a statement that he is not a egistered party member of any party, in other words, hes not a democrat, not a republican and hes independent. My question is, being an you know, the n, assumption in order for you to that you must register and whether those three parties, one the two o parties, major parties, which is mr. Lican and democrat, farrell is not average voter, voting for anything. How ld like to understand or t that his organization his demeanor is financed by and financed by . You know, when have you people who i hington journal, give Great Respect for, for the journal itself, you know, i you ought to have the into er actually look these peoples demeanor and being truthful about everything and stop having numbers and do dossiers roms to and documents and all the rules of the government. Think hes able to read everything. Host okay. Go to harriet, greenbelt, maryland, independent line. Caller good morning, good morning. Mr. Farrell, i found to have biases, all americans have to we all have a bias about something, whether it is donald hillary, obama, whoever it could be, or the congress. O therefore, i think we all need to step back and realize we and regardless to mr. Farrell, i thought, too, disingenuous, as ou could tell the way his expression indicated. Host what did he say that was disingenuous. Caller i think when the man asked him, i cant recall totally, the gentleman mentioned is as disingenuous, that when he came back and said he was not a republican or did nothe have an affiliation with democrat, republican or independent, how is it he can be on your Television Show and tell knowledge, which im sure he does, im sure he has all the knowledge he was talking do we know, he could fabricate stuff just like my ybody else does, that is opinion. Host thats greenbelt, maryland, on independent line. Harriet. Front page of wall street journal talks about potential f Government Shutdown, also talks about the status of daca, are known as, y this proposal by john mccain and coones, that would allow path to citizenship, so to of thethat is front page wall street journal, on the sundays show yesterday, dick at from illinois, burrbin, talking about the status of daca, if there will be in light of agreement of a shutdown, here is what he had to say. Is not likely to be a daca deal, we are working every calls day on telephone and person to person to reach this bipartisan agreement. Progress. re making i want to absolute the moderates in both the republican and in the ic caucuses senate, they have really been a positive voice. Democrats and republicans sitting in the same room working to solve this problem. I dont see a Government Shutdown coming, but i see a by senator mcconnell to finally bring this critical issue that affects the lives of people of thousands of in america, finally bringing it to full debate in the senate, looking for we were when there was a shutdown. Weve achieved that goal, were forward. Host things to watch for today on the network, 11 00 this ofning, the former secretary state, former president candidate Hillary Clinton, speaking at georgetown issue of womenhe special human rights. You can see that at 11 00 this cspan. Org, cspan2 pfrchlt troy, alabama, republican line, go up. Ad, you are next caller hey, pedro, listen. This country,e in good, common, hardworking begin to not understand what is going on up washington. Nd did you know that we would rather watch roy rogers on msnbc, ion than to watch fox fox, and cnn, because that is they talk about, is some that has noomething earing to what our daily lives are about. You think they are getting hey think they care about the people. Host so what should they caller they dont care with the people in this country. Host who should they be talking about then . Shouldnt be talking about that all the time, they should be talking about and schools and how to make it better howsick people, try to find to help with diseases that are in our country. Host okay, stan next in jacksonville, florida, republican line. Morning, stan. Caller good morning. Conversation regarding mr. Farrell. Relieved and y happy that mr. Farrell, unlike callers, mr. Ax to grind party wise. Because he does not, is not a of the political parties, that sort of thing is colored by it. Therefore, it is more likely to accurate than ones who rabied leftish or rightish party. Other political in this case, i applaud mr. Farrell. Thank you very much for your efforts. Host couple tweets to show you. The first one from the president of the United States. Toward the Ranking Member of the house intelligence ommittee, adam schiff, calling him little adam schiff, esperate to run for federal obvious with comey, warner, brennan and clapper. Closed committee earings to illegally leak confidential information. False smears, the American People would appreciate t if you turned off the t. V. And helped solve the funding crisis, protect dreamers or anything else. Adam schiff referring to the fact r aspect and the government funding is expected to run out by the end of the week. The House Intelligence Committee meeting 5 00 this afternoon to debate and discuss the release memo to respond to the republican memo that was released last week. Takes place today. The president of the united issues alking about earlier talking about that, but also talking about the status of daca. Had to say via tweet. Any deal on daca that does not include Strong Border security the desperately needed wall is a total waste of time. Rapidly approaching and democrats seem to not care about make a deal eexclamation point. Avid in louisiana, next up, independent line, hi. Caller yes, this is david. This whole situation about this ntelligence that were being threatened by schumer, by the New York Times and by the Washington Post about if anybody crosses the Intelligence Agency they will be sorry. Now, that is a scary comment rom schumer from major newspapers that put out a threat hat if you cross the Intelligence Community you will be sorry, now that is look into what and they are not making the comments off the cuff, they know can be done. And im pretty sure all these they haves resigning, something on them and they said resign, this Intelligence Community could put stuff on them and that could happen to any one of us in the United States. Have to be oesnt associated with anybody in or the president or politics, if they want to get us. Theyre going to get to me, that was fairly accurate statement. Time. You for your host go to malcolm, las vegas, nevada, democrats line. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller good morning. Hello. Ahead. Youre on, go caller im sorry. Good morning, i would like to hear is amazing to me to republicans that love conspiracies, known to spend of dollars on investigating hillary and if there was ever deep state it was obama and now all of a sudden, they are rooting for a complete a t who nce and the f. B. I. Republicans always love to back the badge all of a sudden, the else isnt and everybody against the republicans, unbelievable. Like to say mueller hasnt said anything of what he watch t hes coming, so out, trump. Have a good day. Host Washington Post business section, story about missile contracts being assigned to arious contractors in and around washington, d. C. Davenport and greg reporting made major investment last week, awarding boeing 6. 5 billion contract at time when relationships with korea is growing, complete accelerated delivery of new with 20 additional silo necessary alaska, the pentagon said in a statement and pay for procurement of 20 additional missiles and bring contract 12. 6 billion through 2023. He story goes on to say in recent earnings call, marilyn Lockheed Martin noted ast december, 4 billion of the additional 4. 7 billion included for emergency defense spending was for missile defense. The budget request called for 200 additional missiles built by company, she said was recognition for the need of country to maintain leadership vital area of National Security n. Maryland, republican line, freddy is next. Hi. Caller hi. m calling to something about nunes memo. And for somebody like me, coming from a country, where there is of the law, we look at the United States as perfect country. Something like this going on, statements coming from the f. B. I. , when we look at somebody like adam schiff, man United States, this is just bias. Just saying American People, either you are whether you are democrat or republican, if dont see this thing like might be you. His is really terrible for the image of the whole country around the world. Thank you. Windmere, florida, independent line, next from victor. Caller yes. ve been watching the russian meddling, how much attention its getting. Wonder how people in congress that are getting unlimited amounts of monnecampaign finance, and from pacts and undocumented sources, that could vladamir putin for all we know. We have no idea. Some of the things that affect more are Prescription Drug sanders tried and to pass a bill, it was stopped by the corporate lobbyists. More power than the people and the russian meddling. Lives a lot our more. I hope mr. Mueller looks into decision has ed done to the congress and to corruption in the congress. Wide open to corruption, there is unlimited amounts of oney, they can set up dummy corporations, nobody knows where t is coming from, the pacts, they dont tell everybody where exact amount of money is coming billionaires in corporate lobbyists stopping any egislation because theyre afraid to get a big donor will target them to get lose an election. That is the real corruption in washington. Host the wall street journal ninets stefanie armor says states requirement residents must have health insurance, move that could accelerate divide between the Affordable Care act, states intent on tearing it down, if you go to it, states to looking at the proposal, maryland, connecticut, hawaii, island, washington, minnesota, new jersey, vermont and district of columbia. Adding that republicans failed to repeal the addition to fwhut erasing individual mandate, the Trump Administration has been using Administration Action to back aca require sxment give states more control, that which ting landscape in blue states pursue initiative to keep or expand aca, and red to defend the law and put conservative stamp on health policy. In tennessee, am republican line. Caller hey, pedro. Hi. caller pedro, thanks a lot. I want to get on the air why the such a necessity. We have a news media here that is not impartial. Democrats. L i have masters degree in journalism and i can tell you including me hem, at that tame, are democrats. They wont tell the truth. Investigations, mueller. We have the i. Go, i hope is honest in the f. B. I. They are not speaking, they dont make daily reports. News e schiff and the media, democrat liars, coming on saying s everyday and something erroneous about trump and the administration over and over accumulates day after day. There is no rebuttal, no republicans, the like that guy that didnt want, that man from Judicial Watch on t. V. , they dont want republicans to have any speech, they are kimmel said, not intelligent enough to speak nd have talk shows, that is what they say. Therefore, nobody on our side, tells the can side, truth. There are memos, dont you read messages between orr straus and his girlfriend . You are in the center of everything, dont you read those things . Know what those people are saying about trump. T cant be a mystery to you, the news media. Nbc is biggest disgrace in broadcasting. Thing, this is not hyperbole, were at stage of russia in news media here and i have a journalism side gets to ne speak. You cant go to a show, you ant go anywhere without expecting somebody to assault your president. Host okay, okay. Lets hear from anthony, river michigan, democrats line. Calle er host anthony in michigan, hello. Caller yes, i like to understand, like to know why the republicans are so much against intelligence communities . Memo they in the realize that page had been under 2013, yet ion since hes still walking around. Was emo that was released top secret. Is it possible that page could double agent and they just gave him up as an asset . The republican party, used to be law. Party of but now it apparently, they are who against anybody protects us from terrorism. From is next, hear floyd in bosie r city, independent line. Morning. Ood good morning. Im an 83yearold veteran. Spent 22 years in the military. And all i was hello. Go ahead. Re on, caller all i was taught in the honesty, integrity and compassion. The United States is country by laws and here is a guy, thug out of new york, thug has two sons and a soninlaw, and neither one of they are all them, males, has contribute anything to the United States. Have taken everything and used the people, used the and now they got this guy in office and hes going to and hes been and besides times three times hes been married, all these women and sexually assaulted these women and they come forward and nobody but they he women, believe him. Host stanley town, virginia, mike. Ican line, caller yes. My big question is, if we have 535 employees of 320 million employers, when are these people up there going to realize what to do, it pposed needs to be done now, instead of made the d trump statement hes going to drain the swamp early in his campaign when all thist is nonsense with russia and whatever appeared. Make up some kind of story to get this stuff to make draining the nst swamp. People in washington, number of them, maybe not all, im sure some from both parties, participate in swimming in the swamp. Of eeds to be taken care now, get back to looking after two parties, sit in same room, by side, not across the aisle, get together and get the situation straightened out in United States and stop being laughed at by the rest of the world. Is was the great nation slowly falling down into something equal to or less than what the rest of the world is. Host former secretary of state, former senator of new york, today clinton, speaking at georgetown university. The and human rights, topic she will engage at that time. 11 00 this morning, its expected, if you want to see p. T go to radio ap you can watch at cspan. Org or cspan2. Bronx, new york, bob, democrats line. Hi. Caller hi, thanks for taking my call. With another federal shutdown think way to e i prevent shutdowns. The congress to not exempt tsafrshgs shutdown. Employees, theyl have to go when everybody else goes. Transportation, they wouldnt have the nerve to do it, i dont think they would have the nerve. Little comment. Host wouldnt that be a security issue overall if they that . Caller no, they wouldnt be fired why are they that essential . Basically they got some squirrels in federal sign that says they are closed, there is no effect to it f. They mean the shutdown, the sequester was meant to work, they worked their way around that. Hoeth hi host hill reporting on federal website, a story on the that Republican Leaders are eyeing sixweek funding bill the governments lights on until march 23rd, funding for Community Health centers, even if leaders dismiss concerns on that, the Government Funds lose down when the dry on thursday. Still unclear whether frustrated defense hawks gallon along with plan to pass the funding bill without boost to the military, something that will course of ring the the week, along other things, as well, we talked about during the course of the morning. But that is expected on the hill. Line. N nevada, republican caller yes, id like to make an to know how like Public Servants like maxine afford to live in a mansion, that is my question. Servants are blic you referring to . Caller well, congress. How about that one for a question. Host johnny in miami, florida, line. Endent caller yes. You just had Christopher Farrell on, right . I was wondering, he named off a couple of whatever laws Hillary Clinton named off how charged . s not being if she did break the law, how come nothing is being done . They are not even reporting on it. I mean, i dont understand. Dont agree with everything trump says and does, but if this what just happened with Christopher Farrell was saying and he said he has documents to up, how come g nothing is being done . Know, someone needs to explain that. I dont get it. North kay, next from carolina. Democrats line, lone, go ahead. Caller it is remarkable how people you know how the additions do it. How the magicians do it. You see one hand has the memo but you dont see the other hand taking your watch. Will give you all kinds of shiny things to look at but at the same time, he is allowing russian spies to come in and i am sure that if they talk with the head of the cia, book of they be doing next . I thank you again because we have a mess on our hands. Host kathleen is in new jersey, republican line. Caller if you are a registered independent during the primaries, you cannot vote and then youre are able to vote during other elections whether you are a democrat or republican or independent, but during the primaries, you need to declare yourself. Host i dont think that applies universally. Caller it does for you for new jersey. No one ever talks about the daca and the dreamers. No one talks about how much it costs the taxpayers annually for these people, for medical services, legal services, housing, their children going to public school. I would like to know once and forall, what is the cost these people to come into this country . We know a lot of these people are working under the table. Hey do not pay taxes i think you can work for 24,000 and declare nothing. If there is a husband and wife not the clearing and any taxes, it is a hardship on america. I dont understand i do not understand why everyone is complaining about the wall, even if it costs us 25 billion for a oneshot deal and then i know that as we go along, that will cost more for border patrol, but i just want to compare the two costs and i think we are better off with the cost of the wall and put an end to this that has been going on for decade after decade. Host lets go to los angeles, california on our independent line. Caller thank you for providing a platform. I really think that we need a call for calm. I think everybody is at each others throats and sometimes i sit back and think for the daca. Dmca was created to dupe the and the fbi. People think there is political bias and sometimes a think we. Re all just duped i just want to say that we need a call for calm. Down and look at things from a different perspective. Our one more call from republican line in ohio, rachel. Caller i want to know if youre going to cover President Trump today in cincinnati. Host that is a good question and i dont know the answer to that. Let me find out if i can before we end the program and you can always go to cspan. Org. The producer just told me that we are planning on covering that. You can find out more information on our website. Is that ok . Caller thank you. Host that is it for the program. Thank you for watching. Right now, we will take you to George Washington university in washington, d. C. The center for cyber and homeland security