when i was a federal prosecutor, i had people attacking me all the time for prosecutorial decisions i made. and, you know, we can t decline to do the right thing for fear of reaction by the wrong people or by the complicit people. so i think the fbi did the right thing, the necessary thing, and you know what? let the criticism come. yep. that s an interesting point you make, glenn. i want to ask you about this, frank i want to ask david about this. the article s a remarkable read. it s full of detail. michael schmitt, one of the authors of it said they ve really been working on if for a year and a half because they ve had bits and pieces of this information for a year and a half. it says as the fbi officials debated whether to open the investigation, some of them pushed to move quickly before mr. trump appointed a director who might slow down or even end their investigation into russian interference. here is the key sentence to me. many involved in the case viewed russia as the chi
russia was behind this. so there s collusion in the cover-up. and you have the trump tower meeting and you have time and time again where donald trump himself or someone associated with the campaign is sending a signal to moscow, we want to work with you, we re on your side, we re going to protect you. if people charge you with intervening in the election, we re open for business, we want to deal with you. and i know that throughout that, throughout the 2016 campaign, counterintelligence people and people in the national security world were aghast. they were wondering what s going on with this guy and wondered if there was something else other than what was obvious. frank, let me read you the response from the white house. sarah huckabee sanders has given us a response in which she said, this is absurd. james comey was fired because he was a disgraced partisan hack, and his deputy andrew mccabe, who was in charge at the time, is a known liar fired by the fbi. unlike president obama,
officials in the oval office shortly after he fired mr. comey was revealed days later. i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. mr. trump said according to a document summarizing the meeting, i faced great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. it was an interesting meeting if you recall. u.s. press was not allowed into that meeting. we heard about it afterward. jim comey is a nut job and a crazy guy according to the president of the united states. joining us now, washington bureau chief for mother jones. clen concernener, former federal prosecutor. both are mean naenlts and joining us frank montoia who served as the national counterintelligence executive. this, frank, is a counterintelligence investigation. there are two kinds of investigations that the fbi does. most of what we talk about are criminal investigations. counterintelligence investigations serve a different purpose. what was this for?
been tough on russia. the second part is its own thing, but the first part, the consistent frank, the consistent attack on the fbi, on law enforcement in general at a federal level, but on the fbi, the idea that it is populated with hacks, that it s a witch hunt, this is the president s response to everything that the fbi has said or done. well, and it s totally irrelevant. whether it comes from him or comes from any of his spokespeople because as david said, it s about his actions. they speak for themselves. in terms of the initiation of an investigation, it s all based on the suspicions that the fbi had about his behavior. you know, and i noted that in typical counterintelligence investigations it s about determining if one foreign power is collecting intelligence against us and if americans wittingly or unwittingly are enabling or facilitating that collection. in this case, i mean, it seemed loud and clear beyond, you know,
in contact with or took direction from the russian government. let s just be clear about that. but one final note that caught our eye in this bombshell new york times report is that fbi officials felt that their decision to open a counterintelligence investigation was validated, when a comment the president made to visiting russian officials in the oval office shortly after he fired mr. comey was revealed days later. i just fired the head of the fbi. he was crazy. a real nut job. mr. trump said according to a document summarizing the meeting, i faced great pressure because of russia. that s taken off. it was an interesting meeting if you recall. u.s. press was not allowed into that meeting. we heard about it afterward. jim comey is a nut job and a crazy guy according to the president of the united states. joining us now, washington bureau chief for mother jones. clen concernener, former federal prosecutor. both are mean naenlts and joining us frank montoia who