it was supposed to be 1, then 2:30, now 3:00. likely to be dominated by the porter scandal. it s become the subject of a congressional investigation. republican chairman of the house oversight government reform committee, chairman trey gowdy sending a letter to john kelly at the white house asking for, among other things, information about policies, practices and procedures for interim security clearances at the white house. whether porter s clearances were consistent with those practices. the date when the white house became aware of the allegations of porter s security clearance. trey gowdy wants answers. listen to what he said. i would want to know from john kelly and anyone else, what did you know? from whom did you hear it? to what extent did you hear it? what actions did you take? chronology is not favorable for the white house. when you have the fbi saying we told you three times in 2017 and
investigators start to do their investigation. you get interim clearance for a specific period of time. investigation unfolds and a decision is made. we now know that the white house disregarded those concerns and there is chief of staff kelly, who is supposed to be safeguarding the interest of the president, knew this foreign intel target was walking around the white house, knew he had access to this intelligence. did he think that he knew better than the fbi about whether porter was a counter intelligence risk? i certainly hope not. the white house also is making it out to seem, okay, as soon as they found out they did everything they could as quick as they could to make sure he resigned. but bringing rob porter in with sarah sanders to try to get his
elements in the white house. i don t know, to be honest. i don t know who knew what, when, up-to-the-. and i think all the stories about replacing general kelly are mostly being fed by people who are unhappy that they ve lost access to the president, under general kelly s leadership as chief of staff. so, no, i m extraordinarily pleased with the job the chief has been doing. everybody in the west wing is. the president is, as well. i think that talk about the chief s departure is much to do about nothing. and there are questions about john kelly s future in the white house, specifically because there doesn t seem to be a lot of clarity as to how he personally responded when he learned about these accusations against rob porter. at one point, he said that he actually confronted porter directly about whether or not violence was a part of the stormy relationships that he had with his two-ex-wives, and porter pushed back and said it wasn t. it wasn t until he saw the photo that kelly a
newsweek reporter. just before publication, ivana composed a statement for the book saying, i felt violated as the love and tenderness which he normally exhibited towards me was absent. i referred to that has a rape, but i do not want my words to be interpreted in a literal or criminal sense. after trump announced his run for the white house, ivana said the story is totally without merit. donald and i are the best of friends. donald trump has always denied the allegations. randi kaye, cnn, new york. democratic senators are now demanding answers from the white house about rob porter s time there. 12 lawmakers have sent a letter to chief of staff john kelly and white house counsel don mcgahn. they want to know if the men were aware of the specific allegations against porter, whether porter disclosed them on his application for a security clearance, and whether porter was ever denied a security clearance. joining me now to talk more about these questions, democratic congressman, ted l
they obviously hoped to convict porter then give him immunity and use him as a witness against the others. that plan now is in tatters. just as a general message i think, you know, there s a tendency to think a hung jury is a tie. it s not a tie. it s a loss for the government. and close to a win for the defense. it s not an acquittal, jeffrey, is it? it s not an acquittal yet. but these cases tend not to get better with age. this obviously a very important fact we all need to learn, which we may or may not learn, is what was the split in the jury. it s a very different scenario if it was 11-1 for conviction or 11-1 for acquittal. if we find that out, that may be an important clue about whether porter is re-tried. we re showing our viewers some live pictures from baltimore right now. miguel marquez, our reporter on