pennsylvania avenue is the heart of washington that connects major political players congress the f.b.i. the department of justice. the press. the white house. this is the story set at one of the most powerful capitals in the world a political and judicial conflict. a battle that has pitted tromp against those who believe he was an accomplice and russia's interference is. a battle for the truth about the president of the united states and for the principles of american democracy. according to top u.s. intelligence chiefs the russians interfered in the 2016 presidential election. puton they say developed a clear preference for trump over clinton so russia's intelligence services stole

and leaked thousands of clinton's e-mails to discredit her. 2 weeks before his inauguration they brief trump. trump rejects their conclusions he does not want his victory to be questioned. the intelligence agencies maintain their findings and partially release them to the public they say putin ordered an influence campaign to help trump win the election. to control is immediately raised in congress which calls the chiefs of the intelligence community to testify. on. their question by democratic party senator like you go down the line in. any of your careers have you ever seen this level of russian interference in our political

process and start with draconian just going on lord no. no. no no. i think very few documents that i can remember would have had the political weight and the political influence of this particular document. the purpose of making that report public was to make sure the american people were aware of some of the dynamics going on behind the scenes this was the 1st time that a major covert action major clandestine action against the united states at the very heart of our democratic process had been tempted because of the

sophistication of the attempts and then the pervasiveness of those attempts to have a widespread impact it was broader than anything that had been seen in prior actions to bring to you what has intelligence community you know fish which is blaming russian president vladimir putin to working again and again. russia tried everything possible to get to the november election only i pod intelligence and there are multiple sources. only 3 days after the intelligence report a new classified document makes the headlines i want to be very precise here multiple u.s. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell c.n.n. that classified documents included allegations that russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about mr trump this is a confidential report written by an ex british spy christopher steele on secret

links between trump his businesses and the russians. it claims moscow has been helping trump all along with the regular flow of intelligence and that the russians have compromising material on. the main point of the steel dossier that there was an ongoing attempt by the russians to get close to the trump campaign is undisputed at this point he doesn't like the fact that the press said it but it is out there is no mr president elect president since you were trying to decision and you're with the still dossier made public news trucks battle with the press intensifies rights are pointing the way it was rosen along the way you say categorically why should the president like can you give us are going to be reading those can you give us are going to be you know nothing more to do during his 1st weeks at the white house trump is on the

defensive the man who just appointed national security adviser general michael flynn is caught in the eye of the storm. he lied about his contacts with moscow and the russian embassy and washington. the press reveals it and trump has to retreat mike flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation he respectfully gave it flynn is the 1st victim of the battle of washington but firing flint is not enough the question remains what are the relations between trump and moscow to knowingly. cooperate with a hostile foreign power to take over the leadership of the united states. for many months to come finding the truth will test the pillars of the american political system the independence of justice the freedom of the press and the rule

of long. under pressure from the press and from the democrats congress gets involved. in congress before the 2018 it term elections the republicans trumps party are the majority and the democrats are the opposition but on some crucial issues it's a tradition for the 2 parties to work together this is the spirit of bipartisanship it's just. since keeping the american people safe and maintaining a such a strong homeland of national security is so important to this country it is the issue that demands the most bipartisan support and so democrats and republicans demanded that there be a bipartisan investigation demanded that there be bipartisan hearings and i was hopeful that this would lead to bipartisan action congressional committees have

power and they can summon whomever they want as witnesses and lying to them is a crime their public hearings are followed by millions of americans and so high ranking high level government officials came to the congress the united states in front of the american people under oath and gave their assessment about russia's interference in our election a key figure of these hearings is james combing the director of the f.b.i. who heads up a staff of more than 35000 men and women. i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the f.b.i. as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts. interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between

the campaign and russia's efforts and early may 2017 if he is grilled over the involvement of tramaine camp komi himself gets into a minefield and have you ruled out the president out of state but i don't i don't want people over interpret his answer i'm not going to comment on anyone in particular so potentially the prez united states could be a target of your ongoing investigation. i just worry i don't want to answer that that that's seems to me unfair speculation that we will follow the evidence will try and find as much as we can we'll follow the evidence wherever it leads by refusing to say publicly that trump is not under investigation komi is just put himself on a collision course with the president. this is an n.b.c. news special report here's lester holmes and good day everyone we learned a short time ago that president trump has fired f.b.i. director james comey we less than a week after coleman's hearing in congress trump fires him an attack against the

f.b.i. and explosive news. bombshell from the white house wait to be i director james cooley fired by president we we don't know this is something that caught all the law enforcement community by surprise and it got the intelligence community in washington d.c. surprised. and the dismissal came in harsh terms in a letter signed by the president you are terminated immediately. i was stunned i think most of the american public was stunned i didn't even realize the president could fire the f.b.i. director the f.b.i. director serves by law for a 10 year period and so it came as a shock i talked to

a number of friends colleagues after that happened who were still in the f.b.i. and it was this essence of i can't believe the president did this but i think he was just exercising what he believed was his authority just as if he was the c.e.o. of trump enterprises. and congress one question needs to be addressed by the investigative committee why did trump fire james komi. why do you believe you were fired. so i don't know for sure i believe the prick think the president at his word that i was fired because of the russian versification something about the way i was conducting it the president felt created pressure on him they wanted to relieve he was asking for something and i was refusing to give it. and fact early in his term trump asked to speak to komi in private. there was a meeting at the white house

a one on one meeting between trump and call me call me must have had his antenna up because he felt like something was wrong because as soon as he was done that meeting he wrote up these memos. after meeting with trump call me sat in his car and wrote down what was discussed the meeting was about general fled the advisor who had lied about his contacts with russia trump said he hoped komi come let the matter go. i hope you can let this go now those are his exact words is that correct correct and you wrote them here and you put them in quotes correct ok he did not order you to let it go it is a present united states with me alone saying i hope this i took it as this is what he wants me to do now i mean i didn't obey that but that's why it took. colin's account is correct if the president calls in the director the f.b.i. and says can you can you drop the case you guys have against this person for

political reasons i think that absolutely is obstruction of justice. american law says anybody from an average citizen all the way up to the president who tries to block and a criminal investigation for the wrong reasons with what we call corrupt intent a bad motive. is guilty of obstruction of justice did you at any time of a large former f.b.i. director james comey in any way shape or form to close sort of back down the investigation into michael flynn and also as you know no next question next question. soon after firing the f.b.i. director trump is about to face a new challenge. will be a feature breaking news right now tonight

a bomb shell announcement just disappointing the special counsel to counsel robert . bobb holder to now oversee the pressure probe and look at the possible connections between top campaign associates and rush it this is. only 8 days after the firing of james combing the justice department appoints robert muller to take over the russian probe. for this mission robert mueller was called out of retirement he had been director of the f.b.i. for 12 years and in 2013 he had left the law enforcement agency with full honors and his farewell speech he proclaimed his unshakable faith in the rule of law. have always been proud to say that i work for the department of justice because of that for which it stands which is an unyielding commitment to the rule of law and to the safety and security of the citizens we serve

a know. quite well. i worked with him for about 4 years when i was the cia deputy director and he was the director of the f.b.i. . he's not a self promoting individual and he has a very high standard for what is true and what is not true administrator pistole he pointed me as his number 2 person in the f.b.i. as a deputy director and so i had the chance to get to know him and then. work with him so let me say a few words about director ball or politics or just don't play any role in his calculations so he is all about finding the truth and doing it under the rule of law so yeah he's a man to be told that. robert muller was placed under the authority of the department of justice and it's deputy attorney general rod

rosenstein. his new orders give him far reaching powers. moller can investigate moscow's relations with the trump campaign and any other matters. well or waste no time immediately orders the preservation of millions of official documents forbidding the destruction of records that could be useful in the russia probe e-mails phone records audio recordings metadata and storage devices recordings of ventry or exit of the buildings video surveillance. once a person or a company or or a bureaucracy knows that there's a criminal investigation to destroy evidence after that becomes a federal crime and so i think mahler's 1st move was a smart one but the order also shows that there is a concern that these documents might be destroyed by a white house that is trying to hide the truth from investigators. this was only

the beginning of a bitter struggle between mahler and the president of the united states. so we have mr miller who's known as a tough cop he's a big impose in 6 foot something experienced justice department official he's a tough cop the press was saying he's a tough cop he always gets his man. and he will press and squeeze and he will flying what is truth and what is fiction he is careful he is by the book he does not speak publicly other than his court filings he is incredibly hard working and focused mr trump on the other hand is a bulldog and it is impulsive where i could stand in the middle of 5th avenue and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters ok it's like incredibly there are not

2 more different people on earth than bob mahler and president trump and very early on in that in this whole process i think the trunk people realize that the best defense would be a political one and not a legal one legally they really don't have a lot to stand on trump and his people made a determination very early on we're going to claim that this whole thing is politically motivated is a witch hunt that whole way if they were the witch hunt i would call it the rig to which i. know what you're saying if only to when just a democrat gets fired when you don't add something. on the phone to you which you truly was.

is washington celebrates the 4th of july. and dependence to a major offensive against the president is about to be launched. the surprise attack comes from the center of washington from the press. the new york times claims the trump campaign was in secret contact with russian officials 5 months before the 2016 election a major scoop. this was the work of our washington best a case of saying it was over and over weeks that we learned more and more about the meeting and the fact is that occurred. so yes it was very exciting to have that scoop again we didn't know that much about the meeting we didn't learn it all at once but we've built on it since then and mahler is looking in that meeting the meeting is organized via emails between the son of the president and an intermediary who offered quote information that would incriminate hillary and would

be very useful to donald trump ultra sensitive stuff he adds don jr answers if it's what you say i love it the meeting takes place on the 9th of june 2016 in new york at trump tower around the table donald trump son his son in law his campaign director paul manna for intermediary and for russian nationals the news spread like wildfire according to the new york times wrote the new york times report on to the new york times reports the president's son donald trump jr was promised damaging information about hillary clinton for agreeing to meet last summer with a russian lawyer about a russian lawyer question has.