explosive allegation, dennis montgomery, a former u.s. intelligence contractor, stole over 600 million documents of intelligence from the c.i.a. and n.s.a. gave them back but it proved in the obama administration there was widespread surveillance and illegal spying on american citizens. that s a story that congress ought to be pursuing. shannon: there is a lot more we don t know about the story. it sounds like at least the first characterization i read of it that he tried to go to somebody with the documents and in a whistleblower capacity. today we ll hear from the four intel agency heads. tomorrow we hear from comey. do you think the dust settles, the smoke clears, do we get any solid answers on these accusations flying back and forth? i think the burden will be on the people testifying, comey, rosen stein and others. if anything was untowards they should have had some reporting of it earlier.
discuss the specifics of interactions or conversations. if i could finish, please. that i may or may not have had with the president of the united states. i will make the following comment. in the three plus years that i have been the director of the national security agency to the best of my recollection i have never been directed to do anything i believe illegal, immoral, unethical or inappropriate. to the best of my recollection, during that same period of service i do not recall ever feeling pressured to do so. in your course prior to the incident that we ll discuss, was it in any regular course where a president would ask you to comment or intervene in any ongoing investigation. is there any prior experience? i won t talk about thaoer et calls today. did the president, reports that are out there, ask you in any way, shape or form to back off or downplay the russian
amendments act without further amendment is the intelligence community s top legislative priority. based on the long history of oversight and transparency of this authority, i would urge the congress to enact this legislation at the earliest possible date to give our intelligence professionals the consistency they need to maintain our capability. let me begin today by giving an example of the impact of section 702 of fisa. it s been cited before but i think it is worth mentioning again. an nsa fisa collection against an i-mail address used by an al qaeda cure orr in pakistan revealed communications with an unknown individual located within the united states. the u.s.-based person was urgently seeking advice on how to make explosives. nsa passed this information on to the f.b.i., which in turn
allowed nsa to gain a robust body of knowledge concerning the person network of he and his associates. over a two-year period using fisa section 702 collection and in close collaboration with our i.c. partners, nsa produced more intelligence on his institutes including their location. nsa and its tactical partners then combined this information, the section 702 collection which was continuing and other intelligence assets to identify him and track his movements. ultimately, this collaboration enabled u.s. forces to attempt an apprehension of him and two of his associates. on march 24th, 2016, during the attempted apprehension operation, shots were fired at the u.s. forces aircraft from
overseeing that same investigation. today we ll have an opportunity to ask deputy attorney general rosenstein about his role in the comey firings as well. additionally, we ve seen reports, some as recently as yesterday, that the president asked at least two of the leaders of our nation s intelligence agencies to publicly downplay the russia investigation. the president has alleged to have also personally asked director coates and c.i.a. director pompeo to intervene with then director comey to pull back on his investigation. i will be asking, as i ve told them, director coates and nsa director admiral rogers about those reports today. because if any of this is true, it would be an appalling and improper use of our