the suspicions even that there was something that was there, and, you know, we were compelled or the fbi was compelled in those instances to conduct an investigation to determine if it was unwitting or witting. the fact, you know, there was just so much of the activities that were out there, whether it was meetings by individuals associated with him, closely associated with him or his own behaviors, and it was before and after jim comey s dismissal. so in terms of the counterintelligence investigation itself, really relevant that it was conducted because of all of the suspicious behavior. and glenn, obviously the fbi before and after comey s departure was concerned about how this would look. according to the new york times report, as for a counterintelligence inquiry, law enforcement officials concluded they would need strong evidence to take the sensitive step of investigating the president and they were also concerned, this is interesting, also concerned that the existence of suc
if this comes to be true, this reporting from the new york times, over a century, this has not been talked about but here we are today, how big a deal? sth of this reporting, again, comes to be true? it s ga lat tick. we already knew there was an investigation. to what degree did mueller s team inherit this investigation and to what degree and the magic words are witting and unwitting, to what degrees of unwitting of this president will we tolerate before we say that it is witting, in fact, because we have determined the law called willful blindness and that s sometimes just as bad as having knowledge. any precedent, have we ever gotten close to this, danny? have we ever had a conversation where we re looking at a sitting president being accused or being investigated in counterintelligence stream. the amazing thing about
collusion and obstruction may have been more intertwined than previously thought. and we ll get to that shortly. frank, duped unwittingly, moving in support or taking on actions that are in support of a foreign power that might be seen as an enemy of the united states. how is that distinguished and where are we in that arc of the two definitions? great questions. a lot of this boils down to suspicions and when there are a number at play, you take a look at conducting a counterintelligence investigation and it is clearly an investigation. the question then becomes, is that person acting as a witting or unwitting agent of a foreign power or doing something to enable that foreign power, in this case russia s effort to undermine our democracy or to interfere in our democracy or to collect intelligence against the united states to harm or damage
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, the suspicions even that there was something that was there, and, you know, we were compelled or the fbi was compelled in those instances to conduct an investigation to determine if it was unwitting or witting. the fact, you know, there was just so much of the activities that were out there, whether it was meetings by individuals associated with him, closely associated with him or his own behaviors, and it was before and after jim comey s dismissal. so in terms of the counterintelligence investigation itself, really relevant that it was conducted because of all of the suspicious behavior. and glenn, obviously the fbi
enterprises, ostensibly private companies. hackers of all shapes and sizes, researchers, businessmen, people working for a variety of reasons, some witting, some unwitting, on behalf of the chinese government. it s a serious threat. mr. deputy attorney general, what do you say to critics who argue the justice department is being used for political purposes at a time of heightened tension between the u.s. and china you have been watching the deputy attorney general updating on a number of investigations, including seeming to telegraph an announcement on his role overseeing the russia probe later today. we have new news into cnn. it s been that kind of day. our senior white house official tells cnn it s possible president trump will decide not to back down on the wall fight as a result of growing pressure from the freedom caucus and conservatives. we re joined by our david gergen here. so it appears, we were talking about this a few moments ago,