Theres a lot you may not know about this guy, congressman devin nunes, hero to some on the right, hated by some on the left. A deep dive later in the show. Plus other breaking news, this is unbelievable. New video just coming in. The former gymnastics doctor at the center of that Sexual Assault scandal, look at this, targeted by a dad of some of his victims, rushing to attack him. Were going to talk more about this in just a minute on what went down but first we want to get to the political story of the day. I want to start with Geoff Bennett over at the white house. Theres a lot happening, geoff. This week started with memo headlines, were ending this week with memo headlines. What do we know about timing of when this memo might get groeen lit and whats happening in the door behind you there . The exact timing is still unknown given how cumbersome and complicated this process has been. But we do expect at some point today President Trump to approve the release of the memo. We expect an announcement to come via a statement actually from the president himself and then at that point the memo then goes back to capitol hill to the relevant committee, the House Intelligence Committee. Then its up to lawmakers to make the document public. The committee has its own methods for releasing the memo. So the president has been up and tweeting about this already this morning. The president writing this, the top leadership and investigators of the fbi and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of democrats and against republicans, something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank and file are great people. We should point out the top leadership of the fbi and Justice Department implicated in this tweet are, of course, hand picked Trump Officials. And the president s apparent eagerness to make this document public has really pitted him against his own Top National Security officials who have expressed grave concerns about some of the crucial context they say has been omitted from this document as well as what releasing it could do to some crucial National Security information. Republican leaders have made clear that they do not see this document as being designed to impugn the credibility of the russia investigation, but democrats of course make the exact opposite argument, that this is part of a plan to discredit the investigation into whether or not associates of President Trump colluded with russia in the 2016 campaign. So at this point we are still watching and waiting, but we do expect the president later today at some point to approve the memos release. Youre exactly right, geoff. All of our reporting indicates something is going down this morning. We know we will see the president in about an hour and a half inside the west wing. Our colleague, peter alexander, is part of the pool and will be yelling some questions there. Geoff, thank you. According to the folks ive been talking to publicly and privately behind the scenes at the white house, this is confusing, they are confused. I think thats fair to say, that there are a lot of hands that dont know what the other hands are doing when it comes to this memo thing. So you have sort of broken this down for us as to how this might go down and the scenarios under which the white house could green light the memo. Walk us through it. Hallie, i think our viewers can be forgiven if they think theres been a lot of conflicting information this week. Because there has been. Yes. Because our sources are giving us conflicting information. Thats exactly right. Literally, mike, let me pull back the curtain for a second. You and i talk all the time offline along with our White House Team on this reporting. There are times we will get information from one source and then ear and then another, all three of them very involved in this process and all three giving very different information. This is why we compare notes all time. Its important to underline this process has never happened before. The house has never invoked the rule thats being invoked now for the process of releasing this memo. And because of that, everyone is trying to make sure they dot the is, cross the ts and understand this process. So the best of our reporting we understand from our hill sources is there are three scenarios under which this memo becomes public. The first has been in place since monday night as soon as the House Intelligence Committee sent the memo to the white house. The president could take the memo, declassify it and the white house could itself release the memo. Based on what geoff is saying and youve been reporting all week, it sounds like thats not going to happen so that brings us to scenario two. The president could declassify the memo, sending it back to t House Intelligence Committee. At that point the committee is free to release the memo at the time of its choosing. Devin nunes perhaps in consultation with the speak could release it today or they could want to roll out and brief reporters and the public about it. The third is the most complicated and theres some congressional geekdom here. If the memo is not declassified, if the president simply says i do not object to you making public this classified document, theres a whole process that has to unfold on the house floor and that likely wouldnt take place until next week. The reason that has to happen is because, because its still classified, its a crime to divulge classified information. Thanks to a clause, a member would either read it from the floor of the house or submit it for the congressional record. And that gives them some immunity from being prosecuted for releasing this information. We heard a republican congressman say yesterday if thats the process that they go through, they could talk about it on the house floor but he couldnt even answer questions about it to us, so thats where we are right now. Mike, i know youre going to be watching and waiting and tethered to a camera in case this does get green lit and we may see you later this hour because timing unclear as to all of this. I want to bring in nick ackerman, former assistant special watergate prosecutor, now a partner at dorsey and whitney and a friend of this show. Also White House Bureau chief and msnbc political analyst, phil rucker. Our panel White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, Yamiche Alcindor along with shawna thomas. Powerhouse gang on a powerhouse day. Phil, i want to start with you. I want to start with where donald trump is on this. We know because he has said it publicly in a hot mike moment, he 100 wants to release this memo. How did he come about this decision . We were told by sources he hadnt even seen the thing yet. Hallie, our reporting is this decision was preordained. Trump first heard about this memo two weeks ago when a pair of house conservatives, including congressman mark meadows, a close ally of the president , brought it up, sort of put it in his ear. From that point forward the president paid really close attention to cable news reports. He was particularly intrigued by an interview that congressman trey gowdy had at another network last week and felt almost instantly that this memo, releasing it publicly would help him, would help vindicate his claim that the russia investigation is a witch hunt, would undermine the Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein. So no matter what the process was at the white house, no matter what his advisers were telling him about any National Security concerns about releasing this memo, the president , according to our sources, was pretty determined to see it come to light. Kellyanne conway was out talking about it this morning, nick. I want to share with you guys what she had to say. How concerned is the president that the fbi director will quit because of this . The president has not expressed that concern at all. This particular investigation has taken a lot of twists and turns and its led us to a few bad actors who had direct responsibility for an investigation about his political opponent and who are obviously biased against him. So conway from a windy sulphur springs. Do you think the white house as some has discussed is basically building justification here for this . Nick, i understand your mike might not be working. Its not working so ill pose the question to you on set as we figure out the technical issues with nick there. Is this a building of a justification to try to undermine the special counsel as democrats and critics have said . Yeah. I think that the president has made the idea or made the case that he cant really fire he cant really fire Robert Mueller. Sarah sanders said from the podium at a briefing recently that they understand washington would really attack them and implode and really be possibly a constitutional crisis if they did that, so theyre trying their very best to undermine this investigation, this special investigation without having to go directly at Robert Mueller himself. This in some ways really calls into question the legitimacy at least in their minds, calls into question the legitimacy of the doj and fbi. You see the president ratcheting up his war almost with the agencies that are actually under his watch. Except hes also putting some republicans in the house in a really weird position because you had paul ryan yesterday saying this isnt about bob mueller. Lets separate these two. This is about our oversight rule in the house of representatives about whether the fbi is conducting, you know, their surveillance properly. And ive had Intelligence Committee members sort of on the republican side say the same thing to me. I had one person tell me this isnt about Robert Mueller. So you have a messaging problem there. If they are trying to undermine bob mueller, which House Republicans for the most part dont actually want to wade into that conversation because of the constitutional crisis that youre talking about, he is making it really, really hard. The messaging around it, even if there was something in this memo that is pertinent to oversight, that may actually be a problem, it doesnt really matter anymore because you have they have muddled the waters so much. Thats so interesting. We cant even see the oversight rule. Phil, jump in here for a second. Theres this axios report out that says there is concern inside the white house this thing could be a dud. Thats right. How much of a concern is that . Because the thing is, you havent seen it, i havent seen it, these guys havent seen it because its top secret, at least for now its still classified. We have a sense of whats in it which is obviously fisa surveillance, it involves a campaign associate who our Research Says is carter page. Carter page is not jared kushner, right . So what happens if this thing does turn out to be basically a dud . And im not saying the word nothing burger because i was asked by my executive producers not to use that cliche. What happens if it is . Hallie, thats a genuine concern at the white house. We were reporting last night that actually chief of staff john kelly after he read this memo on wednesday told the president that he did not think it was as compelling a read as had been portrayed by some of its advocates. So i think theres a concern inside the white house that the Media Coverage over the last week has built this memo up to be some sort of smoking gun that would completely vindicate the president and undermine the russia investigation and it may not all add up to that. Let me bring in nick. Nick, i think your mike is back working with us so thank you. Talk through a little bit, is it legitimate . Because paul ryan, other republicans have raised concerns. They have said, yeah, its not about the special counsel, it really is about fisa surveillance and this program put in place to basically protect americans here. Do they have legitimate concerns that could potentially be addressed by this memo . No, nicks mike is not working again. Nick, we will come back to you, i swear. Live television, guys. Again, yamiche and shawna here to save the day. The ones without the law degrees. Talk through a little bit the idea there could be legitimate concerns addressed in this. Well, the issue is, of course, that as i said, the House Intelligence Committee has an oversight rule. Thats great. The problem that was also explained to me by another lawyer was if its a fourpage memo, which we were told it is. Theres a situation where a lot of people havent read the underlying information for that memo. Fisa warrants or all the information going into to get a fisa warrant is 50, 60, 70 pages. It goes to a judge, a judge has to review that. It is its been hard for the people that ive talked to on the outside of this to understand how you could have kind of a credible analysis of that in four pages. So it may not really tell anybody anything. Phil, come in here, because the Intelligence Community obviously has tried to lobby the white house on this. We know based on our reporting that fbi officials, a handful of them, went over and talked with john kelly about this process. Chris wray has been public about it. The white house acknowledges, yeah, chris wray does have concerns here. There has been some lastminute attempts here. If this how far does wray go, i guess is the question . Thats a great question. You know, many of the concerns that the fbi and by wray have to do with sources and intelligence methods that this memo would somehow reveal classified information about how the Intelligence Community does its work and that thats pretty sensitive. Its unclear if the memo is going to have any redactions at all, if the white house is going to demand those. The last i had heard, the white house was not going to be demanding such redactions. But it really leaves chris wray, the head of the fbi, in a bit of a pickle. Hes going to have to decide whether the fact that the president defied his recommendation is a way for him to stay forward in this job, if he can continue to have a productive working relationship with the white house. Phil rucker, thank you. Nick ackerman, one of your best appearances on the show yet. Were going to have to keep you around. I think youre working. Well come back to you after the break. Before we get there, were going to a michigan room and a moment that happened in the last hour. Not related to politics but disgraced gymnastics doctor larry nassar is facing sentencing on another set of charges of criminal sexual misconduct. So what happened . This dad, randall margraves, he has three kids, three victims of nassars. He asked the judge for five minutes in a locked room with the doctor. The judge said no, of course. And then this happened. I want you to watch. Would you give me one minute . You know that i cant do that. Thats not how i well, i may have to that is obviously an incredibly powerful moment there. We have a team working on finding out more about where that father is, where mr. Margraves is. Nassar was apparently taken out of the courtroom at the time. Court resuming momentarily. Well keep an eye on that. Youll remember as youre watching video now nassar was sentenced last week up to 175 years in prison. The rest of his life in prison. Were going to get back to politics after the break and talk about this memo again adding more tensions between the president and his Justice Department. Were breaking down the consequences of this release for the Intel Community which is enraged over this to say the least and some new comments from james comey. Thats next. On sunday night, krafts commercial is reserved for the people we think are truly great. Families. You know, like actual, noncelebrity, nonfamous, nonreality show families. So, get ready to share a photo or video of how you family on game day, and we might show your photo to 111 million people. Get your camera, get your people and get ready. You or joints. Something for your heart. But do you take something for your brain. With an ingredient originally found in jellyfish, prevagen is the number one selling brainhealth supplement in drug stores nationwide. Prevagen. The name to remember. You know whats not awesome . Gigspeed internet. When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. Okay, so were back and looking ahead as if this memo does get the green light from President Trump and his Justice Department, what does that mean . Because the doj is not happy about this, it does not think this memo should come out. It has grave concerns. And that has former fbi director, james comey, saying this. All should appreciate the fbi speaking up, comey tweeted. I wish more of our leaders would. He says but take heart, American History shows that in the long run, weasels and liars never hold the field, so long as good people stand up. Not a lot of streets named for joe mccarthy. Im joined by frank figliuzzi, now chief operating officer for ets risk management. Also back with me nick ackerman, allegedly working. I think so. You know nick. Shawna and yamiche are here as well. Frank, lets start with you. There are some real questions about what happens with chris wray. Youve seen a lot of classified memos. Explain why the fbi is so worried about this release and what you expect to see when it comes to potential redactions . Yeah, so a couple of thoughts. First, we see the use of the word grave when the fbi and department of justice come out and say they have grave concerns about the release of that. Theres significance in the word grave within the Intelligence Community. Why, what does that mean . Its the word thats used when you define top secret. Grave damage. Top secret information is information if released that would cause grave damage to National Security. Its also a word thats used when you conduct a damage assessment. You determine at the highest level whether there was grave damage. So theres a clue there that were probably talking about top secret. With regard to what Christopher Wray might be doing, ive got to tell you something, im going to put politics aside and just focus on the fisa technique. Americans need to understand that the ability to go to a court and get a wiretap on a terrorist or a spy is probably the most important tool in the fbis toolbox. So the fbi director should be expected to come out and be compelled to publicly rebut line for line, bullet for bullet, this memo. Not for political reasons, but because he needs to explain to americans that the fisa technique is real, its vital to our safety and hes going to stand up to anybody whos challenging that technique. Thats really interesting because there have been questions about what chris wray does after all of this. Our sources are telling us that hes not considering resigning. Theres been some discussion that maybe he would, theres been some reporting on that. I want to play for you and nick what james clapper, who used to be in the Intel Community, had to say about the possibility of that. Listen. There were times when i considered resigning to make a point. And what you have to weigh is what would be the impact on the institution if you did that. Are you doing more harm, causing more turmoil if you take an action like that to make a point. No one you know, thats a very personal decision and only chris wray can make it. I dont think anyone else can speculate. Nick, your reaction to that . Yeah, my reaction is this is extremely significant. In fact the only party thats going to gain anything out of this memo appears to be the russians. Because theyre going to have classified information about sources relating to our fisa process, how we go about doing the fisa process, and i agree with the other guests that were speaking before. This really is a dud. It doesnt prove anything. But it is going to help the russians and it is the second time that donald trump has released topsecret information to the russians as he did in the oval office when he met with the russian ambassador. But wait a second, what about the republican argument that this is about transparency. Paul ryan says its not about Robert Mueller, the special counsel, its not about rod rosenstein, this is about getting information out to the American Public. Is there any benefit at all in your view none, zero. This is not about transparency. Transparency you dont have transparency when you have information that is top secret information that is critical to our government being able to function and being able to function against known threats, such as the russians. Thats the whole problem with this. Theres no transparency, otherwise you wouldnt have documents labeled top secret. Frank, are you on the same boat as nick on this one . Yeah, look, im all for congressional oversight. I spent 25 years in the fbi and as assistant director, i appeared countless times on the Hill Briefing these various oversight committees. What were talking about here is not transparency or oversight, its actually friendly fire directed squarely at the fbi with the political motive. If you wanted to fix an error in an affidavit, go to the fisa court judge, go to the doj inspector general, go to the fbi director. This is not oversight. This is a political agenda. I need to pull up this graphic that we put together that shows various reporting about what the president has said to lawmakers and officials when it comes to the russia investigation, including some of the people involved in this russia release. Look at this. Rod rosenstein, cnn asked if he was on the president s team. Washington post said he asked mccabe how he voted. He asked Jeff Sessions not to resues himself. Mike rogers publicly announce no collusion. Dan coates, james comey, richard burr, james blunt and more. What does this tell you ahead of this anticipated release . It tells me that the president is very much focused on whats best for him and whats going to make his white house look good. Hes very much worried about the fact that all this talk about russia is somehow hurting his legitimacy as president and hurting his credibility. The flip side of that is that hes asking people in authorities and in positions to pledge loyalty to him instead of to the institutions. The idea that you cant retire because you care about the institution is what people in those agencies are taught to think about. In this case there are people who think that the president isnt thinking about the institution of the white house. Frank, final thoughts to you . Yeah, so look, theres a shortterm strategy here to aim it at rosenstein and get rid of him and maybe mueller, but theres a plan b strategy here, which is seed the public, the sort of public opinion. If this heads towards impeachment, the president needs the public to think that everything is tainted. He needs the public to call their Congress Members and say dont impeach because we dont trust this or that. So theres a longterm kind of jury pool tainting going on here. Frank figliuzzi, nick ak er ackerman thank you for joining us. Its not just the shadow of the groundhog thing thats over all of this. At the gop retreat theres also the shadow of this memo hanging over sulphur springs, virginia. They want to be talking about policy and midterms. Instead, they are talking about what we expect to happen at some point this morning, which is the white house green lighting the release of the memo. We are headed to West Virginia after the break. So a few years ago, me and my wife were actually saving for a house. But one day we were sitting there and we decided that, you know what . Something needed to be done about what was going on in our innercity. Instead of buying a house, we decided to form this youth league. What is he doing wrong . He should shed the block. Exactly. Its volunteer, we dont get a paycheck. Its one hundred percent from the heart. Football shaped my life and im praying that it will shape these kids lives as well. Looking for a hotel that fits. Shape these kwhoooo. Ves as well. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. I own my own company. I had some severe fatigue, some funny rashes. Finally, listening to my wife, went to a doctor. And i became diagnosed with hodgkins lymphoma. That diagnosis was tough. I had to put my trust in somebody. When i first met steve, we recommended chemotherapy, and then we did high dose therapy and then autologous stem cell transplant. Unfortunately, he went on to have progressive disease. I thought that he would be a good candidate for immune therapy. Its an intravenous medicine that can affect the patients immune system and unleash it against the cancer. With chemotherapy, i felt rough, fatigue, nauseous. And with immune therapy weve had such a positive result. Im back to working hard. Ive honestly never felt this great. I believe the future of immunotherapy at ctca is very bright. The evolution of cancer care is here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com Appointments Available now. There are seven continents. Seven seas. But at at Celebrity Cruises, wed argue. More than seven wonders. For a limited time enjoy two free perks, like complimentary wifi and drinks. A savings for everyone in your stateroom when you book now, during the Celebrity Cruises sail beyond event. To keep our community safe. Before you do any project big or small, pg e will come out and mark your gas and electric lines so you dont hit them when you dig. Call 811 before you dig, and make sure that you and your neighbors are safe. Were back now with a look at your morning headlines. A 12yearold girl is being charged in the shooting in a Los Angeles Middle School that left four people hurt with injuries to their faces and their heads. A 15yearold boy is in Critical Condition after being shot in the head. Heres the thing, police now say they think all of this might have been an accident. The girl has been booked on a charge of negligent discharge of a firearm. We also want to talk about whats happening over at the Humane Society where seven Board Members are quitting after the nonprofit decided to keep the ceo even after an internal investigation found three complaints of Sexual Harassment against him. Several big donors say theyre furious, disgusted by this decision. He has denied all allegations. Lets talk about whats happening over in West Virginia where republicans are getting ready to wrap up their yearly retreat. Normally theyre talking about politics, the midterms, or perhaps policy like infrastructure, immigration, but you know what theyre talking about this week . The memo. Its dominated everything, as msnbcs Garrett Haake has found out. Garrett, what have you seen . It seems like a lot of republicans, theres not a ton of dissent about releasing this memo. Most republicans are on board with this with the exception of a few. Whats your sense from over there . Reporter yeah, hallie, its striking. When this retreat breaks up in the next hour or so, republicans will leave without a consensus position on immigration, without a consensus position on how theyll pay for the president s infrastructure plan, and without a consensus position on how theyre going to fund the government beyond next week, but they do seem to have arrived at a consensus position on this memo, and that is to release it. You saw House Republicans leading the way on this, calling for the memos release. Some Senate Republicans who are typically more cautious about things like this reluctantly following suit, all under this idea of transparency, that the reason to do this is for an oversight purpose, they say, and for transparency into how the executive branch is doing its job. But you also saw yesterday paul ryan, the speaker of the house, trying to tamp down expectations that have been kicked up on the far right of his party about what exactly is going to be in this memo, if and when it becomes public. Heres paul ryan from yesterday afternoon. People should not be drawing lines, people should not be implicating independent issues. This does not implicate the mueller investigation, does does not indicate the dag. This is about us holding the system accountable. Reporter thats the party line from paul ryan, hallie, but its absolutely fair to say that the story of this memo has swamped Everything Else that republicans were trying to accomplish and trying to message coming out of this retreat. I heard that that came up at the News Conference yesterday, some reporters frustrated they werent getting questions in on the budget, for example. Reporter yeah, there was this frustration but paul ryan picks the questions he wants to answer or picks the reporters he wants to take questions from. After a 20minute News Conference, it was about 80 memo questions. The speaker put this back as an idea that democrats are somehow using the memo as a distraction. Really its been a republican talking point on fox news for a week now. So this didnt just fall into our laps out of the ether here. Garrett haake, safe travels. Sarah fagan, we are thrilled to have you on the show. Thanks for being on. Lets start with garrett left off there, because we have another big jobs report this morning. 200,000 jobs added, the Unemployment Rate steady at 4. 1 . Wages went up by the biggest amounting in eight years. Mike pence said to the republicans they have a good story to tell. Its a great story to tell. Are they and President Trump getting in the way of their messaging by talking about this memo . I think so. What the republicans should have been doing in that press conference yesterday is taking a victory lap. Each day a new american company, a major fortune 500 company often, is announcing some new investment program, sometimes in the form of Cash Compensation to their employees. It would be better to highlight that. Today we had these three Companies Come out and say their employees are getting 3,000 bonuses because of tax reform. Instead were talking about a National Security debate within the republican party. Because the leader of the party, donald trump, is not tweeting about that this morning, sara, hes tweeting about the memo and what he believes is bias against him at the fbi and doj. Yeah, look, there are some issues in the way that the fbi conducted some leaders in the fbi conducted the email investigation for hillary clinton. I dont think that we can go forward as a government and say you can never criticize, you can never highlight wrong handling of issues. However, you know, you get such little focused time together as a party that using that needs to be well thought out. Now, the reporters were asking questions too, so you can say that paul ryan called on reporters, but when 80 of the reporters asked similar questions, that is what the press conference is going to be about. Shawna, youre nodding and i want to know why. I agree, but i think the white house missed an opportunity coming out of the state of the union. I realize the state of the union, were not talking about it. I think it happened on tuesday, i dont know. But the president didnt travel to push his tax reform message. You had the earnings calls for alphab alphabet, apple, theyre doing well. Some of their earnings are good because of tax reform. They said that themselves. He had an opportunity to tour, to travel, to try to turn the conversation back that way with events. The kinds of things that channels like this take live. And hes not doing that to help them either. Let me ask you this, sara, because your point that youre making is that oversight is good and that there are instances in which that should happen. Yes. I wonder if this memo release is going to be viewed in that lens given how partisan it has become. Given you have the daily beast reporting that sean hannity has been advising the president on this memo and hes been talking on his show about releasing it. Can the American Public see this now at this point after two weeks of talking about this as anything but partisan . I think thats unlikely. Look, both parties have been very partisan both in terms of the Russian Investigation and whats going on at the fbi, some of which needs to be addressed. But having said that, i think whats really lost in this debate and is really important for republicans to take a step back and think, these are public servants. They are individuals at the fbi who could be making five times as much money in a law firm in most cases. And we need to stop and remember that theyre serving the country and our language and our tone needs to be measured. Ten seconds for final thoughts, yamiche. I think its going to be viewed as partisan no matter what happens mainly because there are two party memos, the democratic memo will probably come out soon after and the fbis response, which might be trickling out classified information to fill in those inaccuracies is also going to make it a hyperpolitical thing. Lots to watch for today. Sara, thank you for coming on set. After the break we want to talk about not just the release of the memo but another job for the department of justice this morning. Why does senator ron johnson want all of the communications from 16 department officials, including james comey and Andrew Mccabe . Well talk about that and what it means for the russia investigation, next. People are fighting type 2 diabetes. With fitness. Food. And the pill that starts with f. Farxiga, along with diet and exercise, helps lower blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. Lowering a1c by up to 1. 2 points. Do not take if allergic to farxiga. If you experience symptoms of a serious allergic reaction such as rash, swelling, difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking and seek medical help right away. Do not take farxiga if you have severe kidney problems, are on dialysis, or have bladder cancer. Tell your doctor right away if you have blood or red color in your urine or pain while you urinate. Farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration, genital yeast infections in women and men, serious urinary tract infections, low blood sugar, and kidney problems. Stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have signs of ketoacidosis which is serious and may lead to death. Ask your doctor about the pill that starts with f and visit farxiga. Com for savings. If you cant afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. Its ok that everyone ignores its fine. Drive. Because i get a safe driving bonus check every six months im accident free. And i dont share it with mom right, mom . Righttt. Safe driving bonus checks. Only from allstate. Switching to allstate is worth it. All right, guys, so the release of this memo is not the only thing the department of justice might have to deal with today because republican senator ron johnson is also asking the doj to turn over all documents, all communications from 16 fbi and doj officials. That list includes names youre going to recognize, names like james comey, former fbi director, names like Andrew Mccabe, who until this week was the deputy fbi director. While the department of justice considers that request, theres also news this morning related to the special counsel investigation. Attorneys representing former Trump Campaign aide rick gates have withdrawn as his counsel. Remember, back in october gates pleaded not guilty to charges of financial crimes filed by muellers team. Both the special counsel and gates attorneys declined comment, but this could mean something. Well talk about what it means potentially with Julia Ainsley joining me with the latest. Robert driscoll is here as well. Julia, lets start with senator ron johnson because his request for all of these communications includes emails, texts, voice mails. Why is he doing this and what do you make of it . So this is all stemming from just a few months ago if you remember, hallie, when the Justice Department released just a handful of these Text Messages between fbi agent peter strzok and this lawyer at the fbi, lisa page. Both of him who were saying derogatory things about then candidate trump and they seemed to be a little more positive about hillary clinton, but really a read a lot of these and they disparaged almost everybody. What they really got republicans to was it started to build their argument and its leading to the moment were seeing with the nunes memo now where theyre saying we cant believe anything coming out of this investigation into russia, collusion with the Trump Campaign, we cant believe the results of the clinton investigation that eventually let her off because all of these investigators were corrupt from the beginning and they were biased. That is exactly what senator johnson wants to get to now by just getting more information. Now he wants Text Messages of everybody. But wait a second, because i want to bring in robert driscoll, former Deputy Attorney general. Senator johnson is the guy who last week said that this informant said there was a secret Society Inside the fbi holding these secret meetings. Then he walked that back, if you remember, and well play it to refresh your memory. The term secret Society Comes from strzok and page. I had heard of a group of people within the fbi Holding Secret offsite meetings. So thats the backdrop of this request from ron johnson. Given that, do you see anything unusual about this, that senator johnson is asking for this, particularly those names, comey, mccabe, that are on the list . I dont think its unusual, but i think its to further the narrative, right. Thats interesting. Theyre worried about was there political influence at the top levels of the fbi and doj in both the clinton investigation and eventually moving to the trump investigation. So he wants to kind of put out a drag net and get all those emails and see what else he can find. Does the doj have to turn those things over . Is there anything compelling them to do that . Theres always an oversight rule for congress but its negotiated. Any interbranch dispute gets negotiated. Congress can pull the funds of the agency if they dont want to comply, but they can use deliberative process, privilege and other things to try to hold it back. Thats always a fight that happens. So theres news about rick gates lawyer, julia. The a. P. Reporting also that muellers team has postponed the sentencing of Michael Flynn. Why are those two things significant . Sentencing of Michael Flynn, the postponing means that maybe Michael Flynn has more information to get over. We know that he really only pleaded to just a very piece of all of the information that we believe that muellers team has on flynn, so it might be that theyre getting more from him before they move to the sentencing phase. On gates, we can remember he was the Business Partner of paul manafort. The fact that his lawyers are leaving maybe means that they have gotten to a point where they feel like they can no longer defend their client. Theres been a lot of back and forth over what kind of bail they should have, whether he should be on house arrest. So thats some context for you there. Robert, we were talking about this during the break, what could this mean . It doesnt necessarily mean that. It could mean lots of things. It could mean that hes going to plea and he wants one lawyer to cut the plea deal. It could mean that he cant afford five lawyers at once. Were talking about hundreds of dollars an hour for the talent he has, and it could mean that the lawyers have an ethical problem. But i think its really hard to tell from the outside why this is happening. But there could be lots of innocent reasons or nonnewsworthy reasons as well. Nonsinging to the choir reasons as well. We will see. Robert driscoll, thank you. Julia ainsley, pleasure to have you on, thank you. This release of the memo is shi shining a spotlight on devin nunes. He is the man behind the memo. Were taking a closer look at the california congressman. A deep dive into how he got here and what voters back home are saying about the, quote, nunes memo. But maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr. A once daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. Xeljanz xr can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. Xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections, lymphoma and other cancers have happened. Dont start xeljanz xr if you have an infection. Tears in the stomach or intestines, low blood cell counts and higher liver tests and cholesterol levels have happened. Your doctor should perform blood tests before you start and while taking xeljanz xr, and monitor certain liver tests. Tell your doctor if you were in a region where fungal infections are common and if you have had tb, hepatitis b or c, or are prone to infections. Needles. A must for vinyl. But for you, one pill a day may provide symptom relief. Ask your doctor about xeljanz xr. An unjection™. So we know how to cover almost weve anything. St everything even a redhot mascot. [mascot] heyoooo whoop, whoop [crowd 1] hey, youre on fire [mascot] you bet i am [crowd 2] dude, youre on fire [mascot] oh, yeah [crowd 3] no, youre on fire look behind you. [mascot] im cool. Im cool. [burke] thats one way to fire up the crowd. But we covered it. Talk to farmers. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe. Ood to knowing they are. Going beyond expectations. Because our pets deserve it. Beyond. Natural pet food. Thereswhatever type ofhe end of eweekender you are,ton. Dont let another weekend pass you by. Get the lowest price when you book at hilton. Com so weve been talking a lot about this memo. Weve been talking a lot because of this guy, congressman devin nunes. Hes the socalled man behind the memo, right . How did we get here . Lets take a trip down memory lane. In march of last year, nunes went on what is called a midnight run to the white house compound. Remember this . To look at classified reports that allegedly showed proof of improper surveillance of Trump Officials during the campaign. That evidence never came out. The source of that information is sketchy, at best. Nunes was eventually forced to temporarily step away from the house intel committees russia investigation. That was april. By december, the Ethics Committee cleared him of any wrongdoing. But while nunes was taking a break from the investigation, one of his top aides sent two staffers to london to try to find christopher steele, the author of that infamous dossier on donald trump. The atlantic reports one of the staffers did, quote, heavy lifting, on the memo. Remember, nunes has constituents in central california. People who would vote for him. How do they feel about this . Nuness local paper calling him trumps stooge. Joining us is the political reporter for the la times. Lets get into the man behind the memo here. This is interesting. Devin nunes in 2013 was talking about senator ted cruz and some of the hard line republicans, more conservatives, who forced a government shutdown. Heres what nunes said at the time. Watch. It is guys who meet privately, theyre always conspireing. It is mostly about power. Its just gotten us nowhere. He came to congress 16 years ago, stayed close to leadership and then donald trump came to town. He served on his transition team. He was on the transition team, right. He has shown himself to be a defender of the president. Hes always kind of staked his credibility on defending the president. That reference to the quote of t his, hes asking his caucus to follow him. He is staking his credibility on this memo. Almost nobody has actually seen the underlying classified information. Hes asking people to trust his understanding of the information. Right. Then, you know, take that public. So, he certainly isnt representing his Central Valley constituents or californians, who care more about health care, jobs than this latest conspiracy. Instead, they wrote, he is doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect donald trump in the russia investigation. Nunes is in a safe district. He is not at risk of losing his seat, right . What is the sense you get from talking to your team in california about what voters think about this. We spent time in his district, and people really like him. He is a local guy. He comes from a farming family in a farming kmucommunity. He made good. Got to congress at a young age. Very ambitious. Very successful. There is a ten point registration gap with republicans. Its a safe seat. They have supported him through everything, throughout the whole time. Chris said devin nunes is ambitious. Where do those ambitions go . What is congressman nunes wanting to get out of this, assuming he wants to get something out of this, other than what hes been talking about, which is to reveal these alleged abuses he says kpi s ex. Does he have his eye on another prize, you think . He is acting as someone who has his eye on another prize. Hes acting like a spy agent in ways. Not to say he wants to be in one of the agencies, but he is acting as if he alone knows how to deal with the agencies. He knows how to deal with the information. He is not just asking the committee to trust his understanding. He is asking them to go against what the fbi is saying and saying, i understand better than the fbi. I dont know if it means he wants to join the Trump Administration or sees himself as being speaker of the house one day. You can imagine, if he got a higher role in the house, he would be so aligned with trump on so many things, they might get stuff done. Remember, this isnt just about the memo, right . The atlantic had the piece about the staffers. They apparently didnt tell congressman schiff about the trip to london, looking for chris steele. They didnt find chris steele. But the effort is to find out what they believe are abuses of the surveillance program. It didnt start and end with the memo. Yeah. Devin knew niece knnu nunes kno donald trump is still liked by his base. Doesnt hurt him in his district. Doesnt hurt him anywhere to be on the president s side. That makes sense. The idea of him wanting to run for senator at some point in the state of california is probably not going to happen. But i do like this idea that if President Trump likes you and he doesnt like somebody else, like, i dont know, Christopher Wray, maybe youre setting yourselves up for Something Like that. I appreciate you all joining us on set to talk through all of this on what is going to be a newsworthy day. Well be right back, as always, with todays big picture. So thats the idea. What do you think . I dont like it. Oh. Nuh uh. Yeah. Ahhhhh. Mmmm. Oh. Yeah. Ah. Agh. Ddd. No. Hmmm. Uh. Huh. Yeah. Uh. Huh. In business, there are a lot of ways to say no. Thank you so much. Thank you. So were doing it. Yes. Start saying yes to your companys best ideas. We help all types of businesses with money, tools and knowhow to get business done. American express open. For todays big picture, we obviously had no other choice but to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles and something thats really going to make you want to cheer for my team come sunday. Check it out. This is bus driver gary kelmer of new jersey. For the last 26 years, mr. Gary is taking care of kids on their way to school. So, those kids parents decided to do something for gary. This explains why he is so thrilled and why he has that jersey. I want you to watch. When he found out he got tickets to the super bowl after the parents teamed together and bought them up. Watch this. I dont believe what the families have done for me. Go birds, baby go birds. Go birds oh, my gosh. Fly, eagles, fly he was balling in front of the bus earlier. By the way, i love that Old School ThrowbackPhiladelphia Eagles hat. Fly, eagles, fly, come sunday. Photo courtesy, David Swanson for the philadelphia inkwiquire. Love to hear your thoughts. Were starting sunday at noon, all eagles, all the time. Right now, more news with ali velshi and stephanie ruhle. I took 30 seconds of your time. You can take 30 minutes of our time. I split my time. Im in philly every weekend. I know. Eagles fans are crazy. My wife tells me the other day, t