The president s lawyer completely backtracking on whether the president spoke with james comey about backing off the investigation into Michael Flynn. We begin today with the breaking news. The fbi agent peter strzok has been fired for sending antitrump texts to his thencolleague lisa page ahead of the 2016 president ial election. Once those messages were brought to light, strzok was taken off Robert Muellers special counsel team and moved to a different position. The decision to fire him was finalized just on friday. Cnn crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokupecz joins me now. Strzoks attorney, hes saying that this decision goes against not only the agencys protocol but also against the recommendation from the Inspector General. Is that accurate criticism . Well, it certainly is when you think about the norms of the fbi and how usually things go through the process and the procedures. Certainly the attorney here arguing that that was not followed. That has to do with the fact that the opr, the office of professional responsibility, which was investigating peter strzok, had recommended suspension and demotion. They did not recommend that he be fired, but the Deputy Director went ahead and fired him anyway, announcing that to him on friday, saying that essentially he was fired. Were told there wasnt really a lot of explanation given as to why peter strzok was fired. Nonetheless, this decision was made. His attorney, Peter Strzoks attorney, releasing a statement a short time ago, essentially saying that the decision to fire special agent strzok is not only a departure from typical bureau practice but also contradicts director wrays testimony to congress and his assurances that the fbi intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters. Now, of course, peter strzok testified on the hill about these Text Messages, about his relationship with lisa page. People close to peter strzok pointing out that the Inspector General found that there was no bias, so of course theyre questioning why was he fired then. Its likely that this will get appealed in an effo in an eff to do that, people have set up a go fund me page. As weve seen, the president has already reacted. Really, what goes forward, i think, politically in terms of this investigation, in terms of this whole entire situation will be certainly interesting to see it unfold. Shimon prokupecz, thanks very much. For more on the firing of strzok, what it means, lets bring in cnn criminal defense attorney, former federal prosecutor seth waxman, cnn Politic National security analyst, sean turner, and our chief political analyst gloria borger. The ig said this is not good behavior. Good he was taken off the Mueller Investigation. Now you have the Deputy Director in effect overruling another senior fbi official. What do you see behind that . Politics. And we have to report this out, but it seems to me that you know that rosenstein, rod rosenstein, has been in a fight with conservatives in congress who want him impeached. You know the fbi has been under fire by republicans in congress. You know how the president feels about strzok. And it seems to me that he may be a sacrificial lamb here. They may have just decided, you know what, lets just get rid of this once and for all. You remember that tenhour hearing. He did not back down one minute. So you know, something has occurred here that would make them say, okay, were not going to stick with protocol. Instead, were going to fire somebody who for a very long time was a respected member of his organization. I wonder that hearing in the end helped or hurt him. Just a reminder, he was quite a defiant presence as he was responding to those questions. Have a listen. I can assure you, mr. Chairman, at no time in any of these texts did those personal beliefs ever enter into the realm of any action i took. Furthermore, this isnt just me sitting here telling you. You dont have to take my word for it. At every step, at every investigative decision, there are multiple layers of people above me, the Deputy Director, director of fbi, and multiple layers of people below me, unit chiefs, case agent, and analysts, all of whom were involved in all of these decisions. Was he giving an accurate representation there by saying, listen, yes, you know, i did something bad here, but lets be clear, there are loads of folks below me and above me and this could not have affected the investigation, as the president has repeatedly and continues to argue . Well, look, i think its really possible that what he did, did not affect the investigation. I think theres something more interesting here. I agree with everything gloria said. I talked to a lot of former colleagues in the fbi, former and current colleagues. One of the things i take away from those conversations is that almost universally, whether people in the fbi support the president or they dont support the president , almost universally they have said that what peter strzok did in those Text Messages and what he did thin this testimony irreparably damaged his reputation. You leave your politics at the door when you do the business of bureau. I think the impression that he might not have been doing that, whether its true or not, is something that was a real concern for a lot of rank and file fbi officials. So i think that for a lot of them, they saw this coming. I think some of that inside pressure may be why were here today. Youre saying that performance, because he was so defiant . Not only because he was defiant, but he did not speak to the fbis strong belief he didnt speak Strong Enough to the belief that politics, that partisanship should not enter into the work of the fbi. Basically, he defended himself and took issue with the politicians who were questioning him. He did not defend the fbi in a way that people would have thought would have been the right thing to do. Now, karoun, republicans, including the president , have repeatedly pointed to strzok, the texts with lisa page as evidence the entire Mueller Investigation is biased, although we should note there are many people involved in the Mueller Investigation. He was removed from this investigation when these texts were revealed. But the president sticking with this line because just a short time ago he tweeted the following. Based on the fact strzok was in charge of the witch hunt, will it be dropped . It is a total hoax, no collusion, no obstruction. I just fight back. It strikes me that if strzok is a sacrificial lamb, he hasnt satisfied the president. Yeah, look, this is the thing. If its just about the politics, weve kind of learned in every other stage of this that when the fbi tries to clean out drk a and this is not the first time somebody has come up. We were talking about mccabe months ago. It doesnt actually stop things from happening. Strzok is a target for the tweets he sent. Rosenstein is a target because of the position he has. Theyre both fairly defiant when they appeared before the joint Congressional Committee hearings. And this is going to be something that continues. The difference, though, i guess, between strzok and rosenstein is you have leadership that does not want to touch the rosenstein thing. They dont want to get involved. Its a small subset still, very conservative house republicans, many in the freedom caucus, that want to push this connection to the entire investigation, take down mueller, have everything go away. Its not really backed by the paul ryans and Mitch Mcconnells of this world. That makes a huge difference. Strzok did something wrong. Its objectively difficult to defend, even though the democrats are trying to, and clearly strzok was trying to defend himself as well. It is evidence of bias, even the ig said, look, the investigation is fine, but this guy is not. That makes it much more difficult to thread that needle. As you see, the people that are beating this drum on other drums, i guess, are not necessarily going to stop that because this particular persons story has been terminated f y, you will. Looking at this as a former criminal prosecutor and defense attorney, you see the lawyers statement saying, listen, yes, he admitted he did something wrong here, but if you look at fbi protocol, suspension is what was called for. Lets set aside the politics. Legally, has strzok been done badly by this decision . He may have been. When you look at his single case, every employee of the department of justice is entitled to due process. If he was fired for political reasons as opposed to a meritorious base, we have the Inspector General who points to a suspension or demotion. I think his lawyer will have a basis to bring a case. Whether that will ultimately set t l or not out of court. The bigger political arena really drives this train. No question. Listen, stand by, everyone. Theres a lot more to talk about. Also developing right now, the president continuing to take shots at omarosa after she dropped yet another tape today. This one a conversation with the president himself. Plus, Rudy Giuliani contradicting Rudy Giuliani after saying the president never spoke with james comey about the Michael Flynn investigation. What this means for muellers case going forward. And an Airline Employee stealing an airplane, getting it in the air before eventually crashing. 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That firing taking place inside the secure situation room, an area where phones are never allowed or should never be allowed. Now omarosa says that she is threatening to, quote, blow the whistle on what she calls white house corruption. Cnns White House CorrespondentKaitlan Collins joins me now. Omarosa and the president have had a close relationship for many years, going back to the reality tv days. Now trump, as he often does when criticized or with former employees, hes criticizing her, attacking her. What reaction are you hearing today from the white house . Reporter well, its been quite the reaction. I dont think weve seen the president react like this about a staffer leaving the white house since Steve Bannons departure. The president is now referring to one of his highest paid aides here in the white house as a whacky low life, tweeting several times about omarosa this morning, saying she was not liked in the white house, that she was not smart but vicious. He said she would rarely see her, but that she was constantly saying bad things, missing meetings, and that when john kelly suggested getting rid of her, the president asked him to try to work it out because she said nice things about him. That last point is a remarkable one, jim, because of course the president is essentially saying that he paid someone 179,000 of taxpayer money because they said nice things about him and praised him. But thats not all. The president just tweeted a short while ago saying that omarosa has already signed a nondisclosure agreement. Thats something she talks about in the book, being offered to sign one after she left the white house. But the president seems to be referring to these nondisclosure agreements we reported on back in march. Youll recall the president insisted whenever he was first brought into the white house that his staffers sign ndas. Now, he was told by several people that just simply wasnt feasible, but instead the white House Counsel donn mcgahn finally relented and had this watered down, unenforceable version of an nda. The president seems to be confirming it there with his tweet. All this is going on, but also of course, we have to keep in mind we have sources telling cnn theyre worried it wasnt just omarosa taping conversations in the white house, which could spell more trouble for this administration. Kaitlan collins at the white house. Thanks very much. Back with me to discuss, karoun, shawn, and angela rye. I guess what strikes me about this beyond the drama of the day is this is a typical president ial relationship here, right . Hire someone knew for a long time, says he kept her on because she said nice things about him. Then when she leaves or he leaves, in this case she, attacks them as i always knew she was a low life, et cetera. Its a pattern here, is it not . Its definitely a pattern. I think whats frustrating to me is i find myself having to agree with the Trump Administration on something. The one thing that i agree with them on in this case is that it is not just inappropriate, it is certainly a National Security breach and a challenge to be recording anything in the situation room. I have Homeland Security background. You just know better. In this instance, you regularly find yourself on the other side of the administration saying, they dont know better. For whatever reason, whether its lack of training or lack of regard for the rules or regulations that exist, they dont know better. There still have to be repercussions for that. The other issue i have, frankly, is if omarosa knew all of this when she went into the administration, which she did, then she should have never gone. I think the issue that i have with both donald trump and omarosa is that theyre playing with lives now. This is not the apprentice the remix, what i called it on twitter. We have to say enough is enough. This is now a distraction. How many times have we said that since the election . This is now a distraction and its putting us all in harms way. Its time to stop. Gloria, as kaitlan was saying there, the white house is concerned there are other tapes. Why do people feel the need to tape conversations . Is it perhaps theyre concerned the president might lie about what was said in those conversations . First of all, i dont think they trust each other. Many of them probably dont trust the president himself. And if youre signing nondisclosure, nondisparagement clauses, maybe you want to do it to protect yourself to a certain degree. I think the level of paranoia is something we havent ever seen in a white house. And what was john kelly doing taking her into the situation room to fire her basically . I mean, you can fire someone somewhere else. It doesnt have to be there. And as angela is saying, everybody knows. You cant bring a phone into the situation room. You can in this situation room, but not in another. The point is that everything was handled badly. The president now is obsessed with omarosa, whom he told on that tape, i believe falsely, that he didnt know she was going to be fired because he didnt offer to rehire her. Did he . I dont love that youre leaving. Yeah, i didnt hear that. There was some play acting in his reaction to that. Its just all a mess. Shawn, i have to ask you, you served many years in the intelligence community. Listen, were a nation at war. We have two ongoing wars. Russia is attacking our democracy. There are genuine National Security risks. What does it mean for u. S. National security . How do u. S. Adversaries look at an administration, the most powerful man in the world, where you have people taping each other . You have apparently lies going back and forth. There was back stabbing. Very Public Comments from the president on people who very recently served in very senior roles. Is that a threat to u. S. National security for outsiders to see this very public display of dysfunction . Look, our adversaries who collect information, who collect intelligence on the United States look at an Administration Like this as divided against itself, an administration where theres all this infighting, all this distrust. Its a treasuretrove of potential information for our adversaries. It is a target of opportunity. When we talk about taking these devices into the situation room, look, theres absolutely no doubt that there are National Security implications here. Its not for the reasons that