became chairman of the trump campaign and the fbi knew what they knew about him? as of yesterday, we now know from justice department prosecutors speaking in open court that paul manafort was being investigated possibly for being a back channel between the trump campaign and the russian government. what did the fbi do when manafort took over a pre presidential campaign. james comey left open the possibility they did do something. when i asked about trmike flynn after the fbi interviewed mike flynn about his contact with russi russians, after the justice department warned that he was vulnerable to russian blackmail, i asked comey if after all that during the weeks that flynn stayed on, whether the fbi or any other intelligence agency took measures to keep sensitive information away from flynn to protect national security since
attacked. but the difference is that in those countries and germany and other places, both of the political parties came together and were very public about saying we don t care who wins, we don t want russia involved. and they were very proactive. and so wasn t it incumbent on the republicans to be as alarmed as democrats about an attack on our country? well, of course. russians have been do this for 100 years and they supported far left wing communist parties all over the world with some success in some places and you now it s these right wingnuts and so-called religious conservatives that they support and ku klux klan elements in the united states, bright bhart nre news and the rest of it. it s a serious threat to the united states governmentght bre news and the rest of it. it s a serious threat to the united states government and all
effort, no united front. we reached out to the rnc for comment. a spokesman pointed out that in july of 2016, priebus said he would be concerned if it were true that russians were behind the dnc hack and he also made comments denouncing the hack of e-mails. but republicans never responded. joini joining me now are former strategists, and a former ethics lawyer. and joel, you were on the clinton campaign. i don t know if you recall this letter that was sent out, i have a copy of it here. and in it, donna brazile starts off saying, you know, we challenged both parties to focus on the integrity of the election day process. she goes in to this question of russia hacking and asks let s stand together and help each over. do you recall any response whatsoever coming from the rnc? zero.
missing e-mails which a lot of republicans including donald trump clearly believed russia had. and if we look at this development in the context of a longer timi time line, it s cle the hunt for russians with dirt on hillary clinton was a recurring theme in the trump campaign. let s go back to march 19, 2016 when russian operatives first hacked lits campaign chairman john podesta s e-mail account which did not become public knowledge until wikileaks released those e-mails in october. a month after the podesta hack in april of 2016, the democratic national committee first learned that russian government hackersr network and that became known in june. and we now know that during that same month, on april 26, trump campaign adviser george papadopoulous met in london with a profession on or who claimed to have contacts with russian government officials who were in
possession of dirt on hillary clinton in the form of thousands of e-mails. about two weeks later, on may 9, fox news analyst andrew napolitano goes on fox news and makes a similar claim about russians with clinton s e-mails. then a month after that, donald trump jr. starts his own search for that dirt when on june 3 he gets an efts ma-mail from rob goldstone who promises information from high level russian officials that would incriminate clinton and be useful to his father s campaign. to that donald jr. responds if it s what you say, i love it. six days later, donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared kushner attend the trump tower e-mail set up that meeting. and on that same day, whenever