Transcripts For CNNW Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer 20170607

And in a speech in the heartland promoting a infrastructure plan where he ducked questions on whether he has confidence in his attorney general. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Breaking news. The fired fbi director james comey will testify tomorrow that President Trump asked him directly about former National Security adviser Michael Flynn under investigation for russia contacts saying, quote, i hope you can let this go. In his Opening Statement released early by the Senate Intelligence committee and raising lots of new questions about how hell add all of this up tomorrow, comey says the president also described the russia investigation as a cloud and asked what could be done, quote, to lift the cloud. Comey says the president repeatedly demanded loyalty and asked him to get the word out that he wasnt under investigation. Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee Panel today, director of National Intelligence dan coats and director of the National Security agency Admiral Mike Rogers both refused to discuss their private talks with President Trump. They who not say if they had been asked to downplay or influence the investigation into russias election meddling and contacts with trump associates. President trump changed the subject for a while today with a tweet announcing his pick for a new fbi director, former Justice Department official christopher wray. Later after a speech in ohio the president would not say he has faith in his attorney general Jeff Sessions and asked if hes worried about comeys testimony the president only gave a quick smile. Ill talk to the Ranking Member of the house Intelligence Committee democratic congressman adam schiff and democratic senator Martin Heinrich of the Senate Intelligence committee. They are standing by live and our correspondents, specialists and guests are also standing by with full coverage of the days top stories. Lets begin with the truly stunning revelations from the fired fbi director james comey. Lets go to our chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto. Jim, take us through comeys statement to the Senate Intelligence committee. Reporter well, wolf, today in the simplest terms james comey contradicted the president of the United States. On may 18th when asked whether he had urged comb in any way, shape or form to ease up on the flynn investigation, trump said at a News Conference no. He repeated no and then told reporters to move on to the next question. Today comby in great detail lays out exactly the opposite scenario, and he also adds that mr. Trump demanded the loyalty of one of the nations top Law Enforcement officials when the president was in a position to fire that official which, of course, he eventually did. The dramatic written testimony released a day early at james comeys request outlines in stunning detail his interactions with the president , including a series of nine oneonone meetings and phone calls with mr. Trump. On the crucial question of whether had the president attempted to influence ongoing fbi investigations, comey said the president told him, quote, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. Comey makes clear, quote, i had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian Ambassador. In his letter firing the fbi director, the president said that comb he told him three times that he himself was not under investigation. He repeat that had claim in an interview with nbc. Let me ask you about your termination letter to mr. Comey. You write i greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that i am not under investigation. Why did you put that in there . Because he told me that. I mean, he told me that. Reporter and in his written testimony comey largely confirms those occasions, but says they were specifically about whether the president was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation. First, on january 6th when comey went to trump tower to brief the president elect on a dossier of allegations involving mr. Trump, first reported by cnn, comey says that, quote, during our oneonone meeting at trump tower, based on president elects reaction to the briefing and without him directly asking the question i hovered that assurance, that he was not under fbi counterintelligence probe. The second time in a dipper on january 27th comey says the president told him he was considering ordering an investigation into the dossier. Comey says, quote, i replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we werent, and in a march 30th phone call comey, quote, explained that we had briefed the leadership of congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we had told those congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. I reminded him hi previously told him that. He repeatedly told me we need to get that fact out. The dossier in particular attracted the president s attention. He said he had nothing to do with russia, had not been involved with hookersins russia and had always assumed he was being recorded when in russia. He asked what we could do to lift the cloud. The president comey says was also very interested in establishing his loyalty. In their january 27th dinner comey sailed President Trump told him, quote, i need loyalty. I expect loyalty. Comey went on i didnt move, speak or change myofascial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. He shade he told trump finally, quote, you will always get honesty from me to which the president responded thats what i want, honest loyalty. Throughout the seven pages of testimony comey repeatedly expresses discomfort with his interactions with the president saying mr. Trumps comments at dinner in late january made him, quote, uneasy, and describing the conversation as awkward. The former fbi director even says he told attorney general Jeff Sessions it was inappropriate for him to be left alone in the room with the president. In his testimony comey leaves not to subtle clues for investigators going forward. He describes the memos he wrote about the meetings with the president as unclassified, indicating in his view there what is no legal barrier to making them public and he names many key potential witnesses sump as attorney general sessions, Vice President pence who he asked to leave the oval office for his private sitdown with comey, all but identifying them for the special counsel and other investigators as witnesses to be called to testify under oat. Wolf. I suspect the q a with the senators and comey tomorrow will be intense. Jim sciutto, thank you very much. President trump, meanwhile, is back at the white house right now after giving a speech on infrastructure in cincinnati, ohio. Lets go to our White House Correspondent athena jones. Athena, whats the reaction there to this very dramatic comey statement . Reporter hi, wolf. Well, the reaction has been pretty limited. No tweeting from the president about this. When he arrived in ohio, he was asked if he was worried about comeys testimony and didnt answer, but that was before the former directors Opening Statement was posted online. On the flight back from ohio, Sarah Huckabee sanders, the deputy press secretary, was asked if the president had had a chance to review those seven pages of opening remarks and if the white house plans to dispute anything in that testimony, and she could only say shes not aware that hes had a chance to review it, and she couldnt answer if they are going to dispute anything because its still under review, and, wolf, one more thing i should mention. She was also asked if the president plans to watch or tweet about the comey hearing tomorrow and she says shes not sure. Has the white house finally said if the president has confidence in his own attorney general Jeff Sessions . They would not say so yesterday. Reporter no. They are not saying so today either. More than 24 hours later. They have been asked this question repeatedly. Today Sarah Huckabee sanders said she hadnt had a chance to have extensive conversations with the president today, but she certainly plans to ask him that. Of course, reporters said, look, how often do you speak with the president . Were hearing this line quite a bit, not just from Sarah Huckabee sanders but also from sean spicer, and she said it depends on the day. Hes a busy man running the country essentially, and she just hadnt had a chance to discuss this matter with him. But it is curious, wolf. Its been more than a day and they are still not able to answer this. Certainly a swipe at the attorney general when they cant even say if the president has confidence in Jeff Sessions. All right. Athena, thank you. Athena jones over at the white house. Lets bring in our senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. Jeffrey, how damning is this testimony, the written Statement Released that i had by james comb . Whats the most potentially dangerous aspect of it . Well, if its to be believed, and obviously its only one persons version, but if its to be believed, i think it does lay out a case of obstruction of justice against the president , and the key moment is the february 14th meeting in the oval office where they discuss the investigation of Michael Flynn which as fbi director comey is in charge of, and the president asks him to let it go, to drop it. Its more than inappropriate, and you can tell that the president knows its inappropriate because he asks the Vice President and the attorney general to leave the room before he makes that request. Because inappropriate is one thing. Illegal, obstruction of justice is another thing. Some legal scholars have suggested there has to be proven intent to to successfully prosecute obstruction of justice. Thats right, and the word that the statute uses is corrupt, but corrupt means for a bad purpose, and there is no innocent explanation as far as i can tell for the president to exclude his attorney general from a room and ask to have a have a top aides investigation dropped, and you also have to put it in context. This is after hes been that comey has been repeatedly been asked by the president for loyalty, personal loyalty, not loyalty to the constitution, not loyalty to the fbi, but loyalty to President Trump, and what hams after comey does not drop the investigation of of Michael Flynn, he gets fired by the president. That to me sets out a story of obstruction of justice. Again, if its to be believed. And you know that some of the senators tomorrow, the republican senators, will press comey. If you felt that there was a problem there, why didnt you go through the major channels and articulate those problems . Well, thats that has been one of the lines since this story leaked, but i think comey will be able to say, look, i went to the attorney general, and i said i dont want to be placed in this position of being alone with the president anymore, so and he said i did not want to communicate this to my staff, to the agents running are the investigation, because i knelt it might compromise their investigation, so he will be able to say he did take steps that reflected how seriously he took the president s statements. It will be up to the new special counsel robert mueller, a former fbi director, to decide if they should go down that road, obstruction of justice . Exactly. The the issue of obstruction of justice is squarely in front of director muellers investigation, and its got to be a clear focus of it. Jeffrey, dont go too far away. We have more to discuss. Right now i want to bring in a member of the Intelligence Committee, democratic senator Martin Heinrich. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for having me. You heard the statement that former fbi director james comey describing President Trump as saying as i hope can you let this go, meaning the investigation into the fired National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Do you believe as Jeffrey Toobin does that that potentially is obstruction of justice . I think its devastating. Im an engineer, not a prosecutor, so i cant tell you what the exact Legal Standard is, but if the president said those words, i believe its absolutely devastating, completely inappropriate and i would leave it to someone like bob mueller to to as to whether its prosecutable. Let me read that exhackett quote the way it was described by comey and in his opening prepared statement. I hope you can let this go, meaning the investigation, into fired National Security adviser Michael Flynn. You know, he did also say at one point he agreed with the president that Michael Flynn was a good guy, but he didnt make any promises other than that. Is that an issue as far as youre concerned . Well, i think thats been very clear that Michael Flynns judgment was horrible. He was compromised. He had inappropriate contacts with the russians. He brought up the issue of sanctions. He took payments and then didnt disclose payments. I mean, i think that if youre trying to defend him from investigation youre starting from a very, very bad operation. At an earlier meeting comey describes this Tense Exchange with the president. Let me read it. The president said i need loyalty. I expect loyalty. I didnt move, speak or change myofascial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. How concerning is that to you . We dont have loyalty tests in a democracy for chief Law Enforcement officers. There is no place for a president of the United States to exearth that attempt at influence over the director of the fbi. Comeys testimony, the statement also makes reference to that secret you be sun stan shated salacious dossier. Comey writes this, and ill put it it up on the screen. He said this. He said he had nothing to do with russia, had not been involved with hookers in russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in russia. He asked what we could do to lift the cloud. I responded that we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could and that there would be great benefit if we didnt find anything to our having done the work well. He agreed, but then reemphasized the problems this was causing him. What do you make of that . I think its just an indication of he was viewing this as how can i make this go away . If thats the case, theres no room for him to exert his influence over the director and to put himself between the execution of an investigation and the outcome of that investigation. If if these charges prove to be true, if the conversations back and forth between comey and the president prove to be accurate and certainly well be able to get to the bottom of some of that tomorrow, i think thats terrible news for this administration, and really, if anything, he made the cloud a whole lot bigger. Comeys testimony, and its seven pages that was released, this seems to confirm that at least on three occasions the former fbi director did assure the president that he was not under investigation. Whats your reaction to that . Senator, can you hear me . I can. I was i was just saying the the Statement Released by comey says that at least on three occasions he did assure the president that the president was not under investigation. Whats your reaction to that . Thats the nature of investigations. At the beginning of an investigation you may be looking at what Michael Flynn did or what Jared Kushner did. If those issues take you later on to the president of the United States, that is just the nature of an investigation changing over time. It doesnt mean there was no reason to think that he should not be looked into, and it certainly doesnt leave room for trying to put the brakes on a Law Enforcement investigation. Comey made the argument trying to help the president. I didnt want to say you were under investigation because if that were to change, then would i have to issue another statement, and youre better off not having me make the initial statement. Youre going to have an opportunity to follow up this dramatic testimony, his written statement, tomorrow. Are there specific details that arent in the testimony, the Opening Statement, that you want to ask comey about during tomorrows q a . Well, i would like to understand comeys state of mind. I also think its incredibly valuable that he was able to create unclassified memos right after some of these meetings, because oftentimes if you wait two or three weeks things get cloudy. Clearly director comey felt under enough pressure that he wanted to document things in the moment. Theres a great deal of value to that, and at the end of the day the Intelligence Committee needs to be able to see those memos as well. The written testimony from comey released today incredibly forthcoming, but you were clearly frustrated in todays hearing before the Senate Intelligence committee with the director of National Intelligence coats, the nsa director admiral rogers, acting fbi director mccabe and Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein. Do you baleine they were stonewalling you. Absolutely, and their silence spoke voltz. They want to hide the answers of those questions from the American People. They did not invoke executive privilege, so they have no justification for not giving the most basic answers to this committee. So youve heard the criticism. Some suggesting maybe they should be held in contempt for not answering senators questions. Do you believe that . Well, i think we the American People and this committee deserve the question the answers to those questions, and were not going to stop. Were going to get the answers to those questions. The the National Security agency, director admiral rogers, he refused to discuss his conversations with the president. The vice chairman of your committee, senator warner twice brought up the fact though that a senior nsa official reportedly documented that conversation in an internal memo. He said maybe we should bring maybe we should bring that official before the committee. First of all, can you tell us what wrote that memo and will your Committee Call that person to testify . I i cant comment on who that is. What i can say is were going to look at every witness in these situations, and if we cant get a straight answer from the administration, were going to go to other witnesses to find out what the truth is. The senator heinrich, thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having us, wolf. Well look forward to tomorrow mornings testimony. Lets get straight another key figure in all of this, the Ranking Member of the house Intelligence Committee joining us now, democratic congressman adam schiff of california. Congressman, thanks for joining us. You bet. Good to be with you, wolf. Tomorrow morning well all be hearing these words, the Opening Statement, from the director. Comey is then going to be answering questions from the senators. The written testimony today, as you know, was so dramatic describing what the president said in their meeting, specifically, first of all, on february 14th. He said this, and ill put it up on the screen. Again, he then said i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. I replied only that he is a good guy. I did not say i would let this go. Do you believe this is evidence of obstruction of justice . It certainly very possible that this is evidence in combination with other actions by the president that could amount to obstruction. Its certainly an effort to interfere in the investigation, and i think that the context is very important, wolf, and and one of the one of the things we need to keep in mind in terms of when this is happening and how this is happening is that dinner that the president invites mr. Director comey to take place the day after sally yates has gone to the white house to warn them about Michael Flynn so the very next day the president wants a dinner alone for director comey and asks for his loyalty and then you Flash Forward a couple of week. The day after flynn is fired is the day that the president asked comey to drop the flynn investigation. Those are not coincidences in my view. The fact that the president effectively cleared the room of other people when he had these conversations i think goes to the president s intent, but we also node to get answered those questions that were asked of rogers and coats today because they provide some of the other context, and that is did the president go to other people to ask them to intervene with director comey because he wasnt having enough success in getting homey to drop the flynn case . Jeffrey toobin, as you know, a former federal prosecutor. Youre also a former federal prosecutor. Jeffrey believes it to be obstruction of justice. How high is that bar from your Vantage Point to go forward with a charge of obstruction of justice . Well, you know, its a high bar here because were not really talking about whether you can bring a criminal charge against the president , whether you could prove beyond a reasonable doubt to the jury. The burden is in many ways much higher because the remedy here if the president engaged in unlawful obstruction of justice is removal from office, and there you really have to persuade the congress as well as the country that this conduct was so disqualifying that it warrants that remedy, that this isnt just nullifying an election by other means, so that is the very practical standard. Its not as if director mueller is going bring an indictment against the president of the United States. He may present evidence to the congress. He may look at charges involving other people on obstruction, if that exists, but the the question for the members of congress is does this meet the standard of removal from office, and that is a very High Standard indeed. Because in the house of representatives you would have to start that process of impeachment. Thats potentially what youre talking about, right . Well, thats the remedy, so when you ask, you know, does this meet Legal Standard of obstruction, the more compelling question here when the conduct involves the president of the United States, not an average person that could be brought up on charges, is does that conduct warrant the extraordinary remedy of removal from the highest office in the land . You know, some of your democratic colleagues, a few have already reached that conclusion. I take it you have not. You know, i think were still early in getting the facts other. We havent had the actual testimony of director comey. There are a lot of things would i like to ask him in addition to, you know, all of the important context actual details that go around that factual statement, but also who did he tubing about this . What is encapsulated in those memos . You know, were going to need to know whether his account can be corroborated because its clearly going to be contradicted by the white house. They are already trying to impeach director comey. I do think that, you know, frankly most of us in congress as well as in the country are going to be far more inclined to believe the directors account than the president s, but nonetheless, were going to want to know were these just pieces of a broader effort to obstruct or interfere in this investigation. The written Statement Released today also characterizes the president is very concerned over that secret unsubstantiated and very salacious dossier written by former British Intelligence operatives. Director comey said once again he said he had nothing to do with russia, had not been involved with hookers in russia and always assumed he was being recorded in when in russia. He asked what we could do to lift the cloud and i responded we were investigating the matter as quickly as we could, and that there would be great benefit if we didnt find anything to our having done the work well. He agreed and then reemphasized the problems that this was causing him. What you read that section of the testimony, what was your reaction . Like the rest of it, completely Improper Conduct by the president , but it looks like theres two separate issues here and i hope that the director will clarify this tomorrow. One seems to be the desire by the president to get the director to help him make the club go that is, make the investigation go ahead and the other is a more specific request by the president and that is to get information out of there that im not a subject of the investigation. Those are two different things. They are two equally serious, well, one more serious, i should say than the other but equally troubling, but we need to get i think get further information interest director comey. Just what does he think the president was asking him, and how specific can he be about the president s exact words because the most important thing, of course, is what the president intended. Were you surprised to read in comeys testimony that he did in fact kell the president on three separatecations that the president was not under investigation. I dont think that was appropriate for the director to do. If youre telling someone that they are not a target of the investigation, that decision is mailed by the Justice Department, not by the fbi and this goes to the director overstepping the responsibility of the fbi and intruding on the prerogative of the department of justice, and and, you know, i have to say i do have some questions also about the the logic and the rationale that i couldnt raise these concerns with the department because the attorney general was going to recuse himself. I dont think any of us knew that until the moment that he announced it. Clearly the president didnt know that, so im not sure that the director could say that with such certitude, but there was an acting person in that role who the director could have gone to, and the fact that there may have been an expectation that he wouldnt be there until february is not a compelling reason to not bring it to the attention of the Justice Department. I think the appropriate thing here would be to as he did in part these questions you need to direct to the Justice Department, not the director of the fbi what is the written testimony from director comey tell you about how forthcoming hell be before tomorrows hearing before the Senate Intelligence committee . I think hell be fully forthcoming. Look, a lot of us have issues with director comey and the exercise of his judgment over the last couple of years, but none of us think that he is dishonest. None of us think hell go and they have untruthfully, and we may have other issues, but that is not one of them, and i think if the white house is going to try to call jim comey a liar, they are not going to find many buyers for that argument in the congress, and, indeed, if this becomes a credibility contest between the president and director comey, thats a contest that the president is going to lose. Well, do you believe there are tapes of chose conversations, inperson conversations and phone conversations between the president and comb . We certainly need to find out. Im sure that bob mueller is going to want to find out, so thats one question we need to get to the bottom of, and perhaps thats something that director comey may have awareness of. I hope hell be asked that as well. My guess is he doesnt know but if he does thats something that should be shared with the congress. Weve been talking a lot about comeys upcoming testimony before the Senate Intelligence committee. Whats the next step for your house incell jens Committee Investigation . Our next open hearing is going to be with second jeh johnson. Weve already been in contact with him to schedule that testimony. He was one. Three agency heads at the time to make that First Administration attribution that russia was behind the hack. This was in october of last year and that the hack was orchestrated at the highest levels of the kremlin. He was also interfacing with state Elections Officials and can shed light on what we knew at the time. What the wrugss were doing in terms of any other russia intrusion. Thats our next open hearing. Well bring you interviews and weve about in. Process of gathering documents from individuals as well as the agencies, and those are the next steps in our investigation. So those subpoenas that youve issued, are they all being honored . Well, not yet. We expect them to be honored or well have to escalate further in terms of whatever compulsory process is necessary, but our practices, we invite people to voluntarily provide documents and be interviewed. If they resist, we issue subpoenas, if they resist that then we have to discuss next steps. One last question before i let you go, congressman. Have you read any of the contemrainious memos that comey wrote following his conversations with President Trump . No, i havent. Mr. Conaway and i made a request from the fbi to obtain the memberand weve not seen them yet. I certainly hope and respect that he ultimately well. Thats in the burro of that is to make sure that the brutal im surely you noticed in comeys statement he made had a point of saying those memoranda were unclassified. That was a significant statement. I assume you agree. Absolutely, and more than that, wolf, those considerations that are allegedly have taken place between the president and directors coats as well as rogers, those are also not classified, and theres no way to hide behind classification here. There may or may not be a claim of privilege. Even that i think has been waived, so theres no basis not to the share this information ultimately with the congress. Youre going to subpoena that conversation that admiral rogers had with the because apparently there is a contemporaneous photo of that conversation. I smoke with director rogers today and im confident that well get all the necessary answers, and im going to assume the voluntary willingness to cooperate with us and also i would be prepared to challenge any claim of executive privilege here which i believe both shouldnt apply because were talking about potential improper or criminal conduct but also i believe the privilege has been waived by both the president and the Witnesses Today who are willing to talk to some degree about that interact with. So if they do claim that, youll have to fight that . Id be spot to any action. This is something i could partner with mr. Conaway on. We have a need for the investigation and whatever process is necessary to get to the bottom of of this is what we veal to do. Congressman mike conaway is the lead republican member who is in charge of this investigation now that deven nunez has recused himself. Hes the chairman of your committee. Congressman schiff, thanks for joining us. Thank, wolf. We have to take a break break. Were standing by to see if the white house or personal lawyers will testify on this. More coming up right after this. Theres nothing more than my vacation. Me so when i need to book a hotel room, i want someone that makes it easy to find what i want. Booking. Com gets it. They offer free cancellation if my plans change. Visit booking. Com. Booking. Yeah. On a perfect car, then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you shouldve done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Switch and you could save 509 on auto insurance. Call for a free quote today. Liberty stands with you™. Liberty mutual insurance. Were following multiple breaking stories including the bombshell testimony that the fired fbi director james comey will deliver tomorrow morning before the Senate Intelligence committee. Comeys Opening Statement released today at his request, by the way, confirms the president told the fbi director he needed loyalty. Comey will also testify that the president asked him to, quote, let go of the investigation into fired National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Lets bring in our political and legal specialists. Jeffrey toobin, a lot of this is potentially from your perspective very damning and potentially criminal . Absolutely. I mean, i think this really looks like a pattern of obstruction of justice by the president. If you look at the demands for loyalty, if you look at the request to drop the investigation of Michael Flynn and then if you look at the fact if comey was fired when he refused to to fire flynn, that lays out a possible obstruction of justice. Now, it requires you to believe comey and his testimony will certainly be challenged tomorrow, but were in very deep waters here. And one critical element could be if there are tapes of those phone conversations and those inperson conversations. It sure would be interesting. Yes, indeed. You know, its now time to settle these issues. Weve been talking about that. These investigations shouldnt go on forever. If theres tapes we should know about them and soon. It was the president himself in that famous tweet, he raised the possibility. Exactly. Of tapes. He warned comey be careful because there could be tapes. Go ahead. I do think though that we need to hear a little bit more, not only from comey but also from dan coats and also from mike roger, the two men who testified today because one of the things that we know already is the fact that the president had similar conversations. We know that at least in march he had a conversation with dan coats, the director of National Intelligence in, which it appears that dan coats wasnt necessarily directly asked to help the fbi, to get the fbi off the back of Michael Flynn, but, you know, i we want to know had a little bit more about how that conversation came across. It doesnt look like the president actually said i need you to help get the fbi off mike flynns back, but it certainly looks like you can interpret things in that way and it goes to this obstruction idea. I think we need a little bit more before we can get there. More on that testimony from coats. Thats coming up shortly, and from mike rogers, Admiral Mike Rogers, the head of the nsa, the National Security agency. But rebecca, let me read to you another quote that jumped up at me from the comey written testimony. I felt compelled to document my first conversation with the president elect in a member o. To ensure accuracy i began to type it on a laptop in an fbi vehicle outside trump tower the moment i walked out of the meeting. Creating written records immediately after oneonone conversations with mr. Trump was my practices from that point forward. Explain why thats so important. He didnt write similar memos following his only two meetings with president obama. That struck out to me, wolf, for the same reason. First of all, because this was so unusual for james comey. It was not his Standard Operating Procedure until he start meeting with donald trump. That will suggests that he thought there was something unusual, perhaps something untoward going on. He wanted to make sure that he had his side of the story in writing just in case perhaps with came into a situation like the one were in right now. Its also unusual though because it shows he thought at that time that something maybe unusual was going on, that something inappropriate was going on, so if republicans or if the president want to suggest that james comey is only raising these issues now that hes been fired as fbi director, now that this has become an issue, he can go back to these memos and say i wrote these at the time. I thought something unusual was happening at the time. Thats why i had this insurance policy. Youve covered comey. You know comey, evan, so when the argument, is you know what, dont believe a word he says. Hes just by the their trump fired him. His response will be . Well, i think one of the things that he does have is frankly a record here in this city of service, and i think people who have worked with him would think that hes actually very honest, and the other thing that i think would come across here is not only did he write the memos, but he also briefed members of the Leadership Team at the fbi, so there are other witnesses who know when he came back and he told them, unrelated to them, what he had just experienced, and i think, you know, thats part of what have will help corroborate this. Obviously theres only two men that were in some of these meetings. Nobody else really knows what happened except these two men. However, comey has the foresight to be able to tell people about it and record it. One of those individuals he briefed, the current acting fbi director . Thats one of the people he briefed including the general counsel of the feerk the top people at fbi. All in the same floor. Their offices are just a few feet away from each other, and he made sure that these people were aware of what was happening. Mark, the former fbi director also wrote this about his february 14th meeting with President Trump. He then said i hope you can say your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. I replied only that he is a good guy. I did not say that i would let this go. How damaging is in a . Let me answer it two ways and im going defer the second way to my good friend to my right here, jeffrey. Politically, i dont think this hurts him yet. I think that if you are a supporter of his youre going to see this and say oh, hes just trying to help out a friend. He didnt really threaten him to move on with the investigation. He was just asking him to do so, but i do think you have to look at the totality of this entire picture right now and see other events that have happened and put the jigsaw puzzle pieces together. For instance, we only have to go back to that meeting in oval office with the Russian Ambassador where there were other notes taken by someone entirely different where donald trump is quoted as saying that jim comby is a crazy real nutjob and that that now this is donald trump speaking. I face great pressure because of russia. Thats taken off. Im not under investigation. There are a lot of other pieces that are going to circle this testimony that were going to see tomorrow, but legally i think jeff has really zeroed in on what he just said. Legally i think theres also an important point which is obviously director mueller is going to investigate this whole issue of obstruction of justice. The new special counsel. Correct. But its not clear that even if he finds evidence that trump should be indicted that a president of the United States can constitutionally be indicted. Thats never been resolved. That means the only resolution would be impeachment, and that, of course, is intentionally very much a political process. Republicandominated congress, so, you know, we need to take this one step at a time. I dont think theres going to be indictment. It certainly i certainly think impeachment sun likely. The most important thing now that i think we can go dow is get as many facts as we can, but in terms of actual legal consequences, court cases, impeachment, were a ways off from any resolution. Keep in mind that there is existing legal guidance at the Justice Department which says that the president , a sitting president , cannot be indicted for a crime. So thats right. Thats the issue here, and today during the hearing, wolf, i know were going to talk about it a little bit more, rot rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, he said, you know, he was asked specifically whether or not he promised independence to robert mueller, and he didnt really want to answer that question. Thats an important part of this equation here because when mueller finishes his investigation, it goes to rosenstein and he has to decide whether it will be referred to congress. I want to go to our cnn reporter ryan nobles. Todays confrontation before that Senate Intelligence committee. It was very, very contentious. Ryan, update our viewers. Reporter thats right, wolf. Both republican and Democratic Senators were pushing these intelligence officials to get them to give an answer to one very specific question, but they never got what they were looking for. The nations top intelligence officials today refusing to provide details of their conversations with the president. I do not feel its appropriate for me to in a Public Session in which confidential conversations between the president and the myself, i dont believe its appropriate for me to address that in a Public Session. Not answering a barrage of questions about whether President Trump tried to interfere into the investigation of russian meddling. If any of this is true, it would be an appalling and improper use of our intelligence professionals. An act if true that could erode the Publics Trust in our intelligence institutions. Reporter director of the National Security agency only offering this broad claim. I have never been directed to do anything i believe to be illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate, and to the best of my recollection during that same period of service i do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so. But as hearing went on, frustration from both sides of the aisle over the refusal to answer specific questions. Has anyone ever asked you now or in the past, this administration or any administration, to issue a statement that you knew to be false . For me i stand by my previous statement. Ive never been directed to do anything in the course of my throwplus years as director not directed, asked. That i felt to be inappropriate, nor havery felt pressured to do so. Have you ever been asked to Say Something that isnt true . I stand by my previous statement. I again and again refusing to acknowledge whether any such conversations with the president took place. You realize how simple it would simply be to say no, that never happened. Why is it inappropriate, director coats . I think conversations between the president and myself are for the most part you seem to apply that standard selectively. No, im not applying it selectively. Im just saying i dont think its appropriate. You can clear an awful lot of but saying it didnt happen. I do not share with the general public conversations that i have with the president or many of my colleagues within the administration that i believe are should not be shared. Well, i think your unwillingness to answer a very basic question speaks volumes. Increasingly exasperated angus king pressed to get answers about the lack of answers. Why are you not answering these questions . Is there an invocation by the president of the United States of executive privilege . Is there or not . Not that im aware of. Then why are you not answering the question . Because i feel its inappropriate,or. What you feel isnt relevant, admiral. What you feel isnt the answer. Im not satisfied with i do not believe it is appropriate or i do not feel i should answer. I want to i want to understand a legal basis. You swore that oath to tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and today you are refusing to do so. What is the legal basis for your refusal to testify to this committee . Im not sure i have a legal basis. The republican chairman of the committee closed the hearing with a stern warning. At no time should you be in a position where you come to Congress Without an answer. It may be in a different format, but the requirements of our oversight duties and your agenties demand it. There was real frustration in that coats and rogers could not come up a legal reason for not sharing the details of their conversation with President Trump, fanned there was no legal barrier, these senators felt that it was their responsibility to share wolf . Interesting stuff. Ryan, thank you very much. Mark preston, if comey can be all that forthcoming, why cant coats and rogers be all this forthcoming during public testimony . I dont think it was a good day for either of those men, but i felt a lot of empathy for them. They were on the hot seat, they should have answered the question. They didnt have any Legal Authority to do so. Koets on two separate occasions knows what this means. He has been on the other side of it yet he cant come up with an answer. Basically he says, lets go behind closed doors and ill tell you everything except i have to go talk to the white house Legal Counsel because they may then envinvoke executive privilege. A bad day for them. The witnesses seem to be saying, well, special counsel is investigating that so i cant talk about it. In water gate, in iran contra, you had a special counsel, special prosecutor. And Congressional Committee work in parallel. They both got answers from people. The witnesses did not come before sam irvins water Gate Committee or lee hamilton iran contracommittee and say, i cant answer because Lawrence Walsh is investigating. No, they answered the questions because congress has a very Important Role here. Not just to determine you know, the only issue here is not whether someone committed crimes, the issue is whether the public needs to know what happened youre right. You heard adam schiff just say he is ready to go to court if they exert executive privilege. Here they didnt even exert executive privilege, they just right. We asked about executive privilege, we are still waiting for an answer. The same thing, woklf, and se also did not get an answer. I have no empathy for those four men at that table. The disrespect that she showed this very important committee, trying to get ans for the public. It was so visible. I know mike rogers, who we all know, he is wearing a uniform there in that hearing room and he comes in with a bit of disdain at these questions. We dent know why that is. We might have been worried about something else, bad traffic, whatever. These are important questions and he didnt seem to care. Congress, the role of congress and oversight is critically important. If they go to court, that potentially could be very significant. And forgetting what the balance of power is. If you go to court, you have to have an answer for why youre not testifying other than i just dont have a reason could they be held in contempt . They certainly could be. Absolutely. I think we knew what the answer was if we were reading between the lines today. A few senators acknowledged we understand that you all work for President Trump right now and he could fire you if you give the wrong answer. Dan coats could have said no and i never add conversation like this with the president. He never asked me, demanded, pressured, any of it. And he did not categorically deny which would have been the easy answer. There is probably a reason. And the reason is probably in part that his boss is the president of the United States. A nonanswer is absolutely an answer and krequest to go behin doors and i believe that is the appropriate thing. The bottom line is, working for donald trump is not an easy job and i think that these gentlemen are between a rock and hard place. I still have empathy for them. Congress has a role. There is a coequal branch of government. The fact they didnt answer questions today is emblem attic where does the white house go from here, you think . I think they got what they wanted out of the two witnesses, which was nothing. No disclosures of information. And the question really is where does congress go from here in terms of demanding answers or just laying down and letting witnesses defy them right and left. But the white house can make a decision, as you know, about executive privilege. They didnt exert executive privilege to stop comey from testifying. I think they know and mark now handling personal representation of the president. They know that would be politically bad so they just arent answering the question. Thats why they were dubious about whether they could or not. Thats not good enough. You could see at end of this hearing today with the remarks from senator burr from the Intelligence Committee right. He chided the witnesses for not bringing answers to the committee. Republicans in congress may be republicans but they still care about Congressional Authority and congressional power. Republicans for years due wewer chiedichie chieding over too much executive power. It is just the frustration you could see with senator burr but senator mccain exerted some of that frustration. Show so did senator rubio as well. All right, everybody stand by. We are getting more breaking news in a stunning written testimony released early by Senate Intelligence committee. Fired fbi director james comey says the president demanded loyalty, asked him to let go of the investigation into Michael Flynn. What will comey add in tomorrows public hearing . Were againing to get some reaction from the president s lawyer. Stand by. [ male announcer ] customink can help promote your business with custom products, like tshirts, polos, jackets, and more. Get Free Shipping and ontime delivery guaranteed. Go to customink. Com to get started today. Abreak through your allergies. . Try new Flonase Sensimist allergy relief instead of allergy pills. Its more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist experience youll barely feel. Using unique mistpro technology, new Flonase Sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. Most allergy pills only block one. And six is greater than one. New Flonase Sensimist changes everything. Happening now, breaking news. Stunning testimony, james comey reveals the contents of his secret memos filled with potentially damaging details of President Trump and detailed private conversations with the russia investigation. Going public even before facing senators and the nation. Let this go. Comey says the reports are true that mr. Trump asked him to drop his investigation of former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. This hour, new reaction and new questions raised for tomorrows mustsee hearing. Anger and frustration, two top