ties between trump campaign associates and russia. in fact, they were issued just in the recent weeks, just in the last couple weeks we re told by sources by the u.s. attorney s office in alexandria, virginia. they were received by associates who worked with michael flynn on contracts after he was forced out as director of the defense intelligence agency in 2014. now, robert kellner, an attorney for flynn, declined to comment as did the justice department, the fbi and the u.s. attorney s office. we should say we were working on this story, anderson, before we found out, learned about the news that james comey had been fired from his post as the director of the fbi, anderson. is it known what investigators are look at with regard to flynn? what we do know from talking to sourcesize investigators have been looking into the possible wrongdoing and how michael flynn handled disclosures about payments from clients tied to foreign governments including russia and turkey. as we reported f
this is the letter they released. the president has not appeared to talk about this, nor has attorney general sessions. i spoke with kellyanne conway. here is some of that. joining us is the white house counselor to the president, kellyanne conway. to those who say why now, why fire james comey now, what do you say? i would point them to the three letters that were received today, anderson. the letter by donald trump, attorney general sessions and the underlying report by deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who the fbi director reports to. the director reports to the deputy attorney general. he was confirmed just 14 days ago. by a vote of 94-6 by our united states senators. he is well respected across both sides of the aisle. he served as u.s. attorney in maryland under president obama. he sent out a memo today to the attorney general and it says, restoring public confidence in
demanded his resignation. harry reid, chuck schumer all the people auchlds tonight they re defending him. it s just hypocrisy to the max they don t have anything about russia if it s there get it out. and one other thing, anderson. i m all for as i ve said before an independent commission no special prosecutors enough of those they don t go well but an independent commission of republicans and democrats on the style of the 911 commission loets do it get everybody director come o president obama let s discuss leaks all of it get it out david. it is hitting f 5 on the political analysis key, to see democrats are being hoimts. you can hold two opposing thoughts in your head at the same time. there is a basis for jim comey being fired. you can also be adamantly opposed as american citizen to a purging of senior official of our government at a time of. purging how can you not hold
next person is in place? we re going to bring in the rest of the panel in a moment. we continue to get new information minute by minute. evan perez joins us. what have you been learning? anderson, one of the backdrops of what happened today is this complaints from the white house from the president and from the attorney general to jim comey, the now former fbi director, complaining about leaks. while the fbi and while the justice department have been working on the russia investigation, the investigation into trump ties, trump associates ties to russia, the complaints from the white house and from leadership at the justice department has been about leaks and about getting the fbi to put more priority in hunting down those leebs. the fbi responded by tightening media policy. we know they have restrict who had can talk to the media in the last couple of weeks. that s one of the things they have taken action on. we also know that they have been pursuing some of the leak investigations
headquarters. anderson, i should mention that we were working on this story before we learned that jim comey was fired today. we ve also got video of james comey s departure. the former director actually shaking hands with law enforcement officers. this is the first we are getting a look at it. departing from he was departing from los angeles at the event where we industry according to reporting from pamela brown earlier he was actually talking to fbi officials wanting some face time to answer questions they may have had. and when they saw on television that he had been fired. it is a stunning way for a public servant like james comey to find out that he has been fired, by seeing it on television. it s wrong. it s just wrong. you have historically, okay? you have had democrats who have said he s a good public servant. you have republicans who said he s a good public servant. and at the end of the day he was somebody who was serving what he