Whatwe that means, its to use e power of the office to obtain an improper personal benefit while ignoring orfi injuring the national interest, or acts in ways that are grossly inconsistent with and undermine the separation of powers that is the foundation of our democratic system. Now, this question of whether the president engaged in abuse of power came up before when this congress considered the impeachment of president nixon. And president nixon famously said, if the president does it, it is notde illegal. And this body rejected that because thats not so. That goes directly contrary to what the founders said. But President Trump has said the same thing in responding to the prior investigation by the Department Of Justice and defending his conduct. Heres what he said. I have an article 2 where i have the right to do whatever i want as president. That he has the right to do whatever he wants as president. That is as wrong as when president nixon said a similar thing. That is not what
personal interests above the nation s interests in order to help his own re-election efforts. before i highlight the evidence and the findings of this report, i want to take just a moment to introduce myself and discuss today s testimony. i joinedda the house intelligen committee as senior adviser and director of investigations at the beginning of this year. previously i served for ten years as a prosecutor in the southernr district of new york. when i n joined the department justice under the george w. bush administration. the team that ish led on the intelligence communityd includ other former federal prosecutors, a retired fbi agent, and investigators with significant national security ent enter tees. the report that i am presenting today is basedam entirely on th evidence that we collected in coordination withle the oversig and foreign affairs committees
i m not sure what he could be angling for, mieke, at age 78. but there s congressional reaction building. what do you think is the possible future of paul manafort as a subpoenaed witness in congressional hearings? i think it s very likely he has a lot of light to shed on what exactly what s going on in the trump campaign, specifically in their dealings with the russians. what hishe dealings were with konstantin kilimnik, who was a russian intelligence officer. you know theho house intelligen committee at a minimumyo wants talk to him about these things. and his refusal to obey a congressional subpoena could wind him back in jail as well. and nelson, if paul manafort is subpoenaed in front of congressional committees for testimony, does he have any fifth amendment rights left at that point? not for any crimes for which he s already been punished. for new crimes that he might admit to he would have an existing fifth amendment claim. but at that point what you might you ll see the
if there is a target amongst that group that is part of the investigation, they have now just been given ample early warning that they need to get lawyers. jeremy bash, the president is at the top of the intelligence food chain. in this case the administration is also, by the way, under investigation. how can the chairman of a congressional a house intelligen committee be in receipt of something, and he used words that made it sound like almost a whistle-blower act, talking about more than one individual, using phrases like come forward. what do you think this means? brian, i served as chief counsel of the house intelligence committee, and i think in 40 years of their existence, since post-watergate with the church and pike committees that emerged from those scandals, i have never heard of a chairman of an
story for the president s tweet storm two saturdays ago and potentially reveals to the president things about the committee s existing investigation. this is a true breakdown, brian, in the entire oversight process. kasie hunt on capitol hill, i m invoking the shiny object rule because this where is schiff? where is comey? where is admiral rogers? i imagine people are going to react across the spectrum, to jeremy s pot, starting with fellow committee members, starting with the ranking member from california. reporter: i think, brian, it s very clear that the ranking member, and i have not spoken directly to him at this point yet, but those around him were rattled by what they saw today. and it is, as we were talking about a little earlier, unusual for the intelligence committee to in either the house or senate, to conduct business this way. it s typically something where it is designed to be bipartisan. and it is, as jeremy bash was