former cia daily intelligence briefer, and this was during the tenure of robert mueller as being head of the fbi. tell me what you thought of the filings on friday. it didn t surprise me that these filings were so meticulous. now, a lot of them was left out. the redactions were still severe, at least in the manafort case. but what we saw was a clear logic by robert mueller and those working with him in the special counsel s office were laying out what they know, how they knew it and how it fit together. it showed yet again that the mueller investigation is one step ahead of the rest of us. every time an indictment has dropped or a court filing has been made, there have been details that people have speculated about but we didn t know that mueller knew. there is no reason to believe that has stopped now. he has kept a very tight ship. this is running in a way where we re not getting leaks from the investigation itself, we re learning about these in the documents.
this isn t good for the country. joining me now, david priess, author of how to get rid of a president. he s also a daily intelligence briefer under robert mueller. david, welcome to you. you just heard the senator talking about nixon. is it too soon to make that comparison as similar, or are there tangible things weighing in on that? it s the closest parallel in modern history to what we re seeing now. we ve had attempts at impeachment. some of them were resolutions that went nowhere. two presidents ultimately did get impeached in the house, though not convicted by the senate. president nixon was the first one removed by impeachment. now, it didn t get to an
khashoggi, phil? i mean we at the washington post, are certainly trying to get answers to all of those question, and do not have them yet. it is difficult to piece this time line together. and i m not confident that the u.s. government, as of right now, has a complete time line in terms of what happened at the consulate, what was sort of picked up when, and what they knew about this plot as it went along. it is unclear, for example, as ann gaeren was saying at the top of shot whether there was intelligence intercepts that the u.s. had, reached the highest levels of the government, whether the president s intelligence briefer shared that information with him, or with jared kushner, or with john bolton, the national security adviser, if it reached that level. we just don t know yet. perhaps we will soon find out. hopefully we will soon find out. and that will really provide a lot of information for us to determine whether this was something that the government sort of let go on, with
correspondent kristen welker, white house reporter ashlynn parker and washington correspondent greg miller. foreign special agent cliff watts and jeremy peters, as well as former cia officer and daily intelligence briefer, david preece. first, kristen welker, out there on the south lawn, it must have been very cold but the words were hot. tell me your biggest takeaways today. reporter: i think the biggest takeaway was the clip you just played, andrea. the fact that you heard president trump not rule out a pardon for michael flynn. i have been speaking with sources familiar with his discussions, with his attorneys. i am told that there has been no discussions as of right now about an actual pardon for michael flynn. so i think that is important to point out. but still, the language is important, the fact that he responded to that question is significant. now, i asked him, when did he learn that michael flynn lied to
consensus intelligence product. when you have an intelligence briefing for a president where they are shading the truth, leaving out intelligence, changing the order so as not to offend him, that s not an intelligence briefing. that is story time. that is fiction. that is basically telling the president something he wants to hear, and i can t think of anything more dangerous during a time when we have crises in asia and the middle east, all around the world. the president needs the truth and emblazoned on the wall of the original cia s head quarters building is know the truth and the truth shall set you free . that s the motto of the intelligence briefer. for the president to receive anything less is a disservice the intelligence community is doing for him and the nation. it s a dangerous precedent. if you read the piece the thrust is the people giving the briefing danced around any questions of russia and russian interference so as not to outrage president trump. meanwhile the russ