the memo was septembnt to congress. it is a disgrace what is it happening. >> the president of the united states is willing to trash his intelligence community. >> there is clear evidence of collusion with the russians. it just happens to be with the hillary clinton campaign and the democratic national committee. >> it is about a distorted memo that the republicans decided to put forth. >> serious concerns about the integrity of decisions made at the highest level of the department. >> this is a red herring, an attempt to confuse everybody.

>> there is a lot of fear in washington that the president is gearing up to fire the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. the president was asked about it today. >> you figure that wong ouone o. >> that would be an act of obstruction of justice. thanks for being here. and this morning there are new questions regarding the future of several top law enforcement officials. >> the white house is pushing back on reports the president is considering firing deputy attorney general rod rosenstein after yesterday's release of a highly controversial republican memo. that memo alleges leaders of the fbi and doj abused surveillance law to spy on a former trump campaign official. >> the fbi says that report is missing some key details. democrats claim it is

misleading. still there are new efforts we should point out to force rosenstein out of his job. >> abby phillip is live in washington. what is the white house saying about these reports? >> reporter: well, the white house is pushing back at least officially on the reports that the president is even considering firing rod rosenstein. now, before i go into it really it is important to note why rosenstein is even in the news. he is the deputy attorney general of the justice department. and he is in charge of overseeing the russia probe. there are people on the right, conservative activists and others who say that rosenstein is overseeing a biassed and corrupt probe and they want him to either step down or for the president to fire him. now, president trump left some open questions broke this when reporters asked him about it yesterday. listen. >> will you be firing rod rose

sign? >> you figure that one out. >> we know that the president's feelings about rosenstein are that he is upset with his leadership of the mueller probe, but the white house is on the official side trying to push back on -- trying to push back on reports that the president is so angry with rosenstein that he is considering firing him. we had two white house spokespeople yesterday in the hours after president trump made that vague statement essentially saying there is no consideration being given whatsoever to firing rosenstein. that statement is an effort to tamp down on some of this clamoring from the conservative right for the -- to fire rosenstein. listen to the deputy white house press secretary on cnn last night talking a little bit about that. >> i'm saying it on behalf of the white house and that is that, you know, no changes will be made at the department of justice. we fully expect rod rosenstein

to continue on as the deputy attorney general. >> reporter: now, the decision will ultimately be in president trump's hands and given miss personal feelings toward his own justice department, it is unclear where this will go. at least for now the white house is trying to take this idea out of the public conversation in part because a lot of republicans on the hill would view such a move as a disastrous for the trump presidency, prompts something of a crisis here in washington. >> we heard that from the ranking democrat adam schiff saying this would lead to a constitutional crisis. abby phillip, thanks so much. >> the fbi director wassed a manhattanly against the release and now christopher wray is trying to keep the political fallout from seeping into the ran a rank and file. jessica schneider following that story. so jessica, talk to us about what specifically he said. >> reporter: yeah, the fbi director not staying silent here. he did put out a video message

to the 35,000 members of the fbi just after this memo was released yesterday, it was really christopher wray's way of showing support for the bureau that has come under constant attack from the president. so here is what director wray did say in that video released yesterday. he said the american people read the newspapers and watch tv, but your work is all that matters. actions speak louder than words. now, wray did continue in the video saying that he knows it has been a tough unsettling time, but he did say that he is inspired by the men and women of the fbi and all the work that they do. now, it was just a few days ago where there was that shakeup at the fbi, the deputy director andrew mccabe abruptly stepped down. that was a month before he was actually set to retire. and that came after he was scrutinized intensely by the president over twitter and also the interviews. and of course we did report earlier this week that the white house aides have grown concerned with all of these attacks and

they were worried with the release of this memo that director wray might quit, but really it is clear with his address to the thousands of members at the fbi it seems to indicate that he is staying on the job and continuing to lead this bureau. >> and talk to us too about some of the surprising words coming from attorney general jeff sessions in the last 24 hours. >> reporter: right. so of course jeff sessions is also drawn the ire of the president. about you as this memo came out on yesterday, the attorney general was front and center at the department of justice here in washington, it was an unrelated symposium, but listen in when he introduced both deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and associate attorney general rachel brand. it really did seem that jeff sessions seemed to come to rosenstein's defense in particular. >> rod has had 27 years in the department, rachel a number of years previously. and so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department.

>> reporter: so the attorney general standing by his deputy and for now it does seem that the department of justice at least the ones at the top of it do seem to be staying in place for now. >> sure does. all right. jessica, thank you so much. so the main allegation in the memo is that the justice department misused the fisa court to target former trump adviser carter page. so exactly what is fisa? and was this the right place to pursue this surveillance of carter page? here is tom foreman to explain. >> in the long investigation into possible russian meddling in the u.s. election, carter page has become a flash point. not because this one time adviser to donald trump has had long relationship with russia or because he traveled there during the campaign, although that is true, but instead because some republicans believe the justice department improperly used a fisa court it wiretap carter

page. fisa stands for the foreign intelligence surveillance act. and this is what is used when investigators want to spy on essentially somebody who is actually on u.s. soil. they go to the fisa court, they present information explaining why they believe this person is a suspected agent of a foreign government. and the fisa court would then give them permission if it is all approved properly to then go forward with this. the fisa court did that, and they approved an extension three different times. and analysts say that is probably because there was something coming outsomething ct of this that gave them reason to keep approving this. but somes a republicans are say that there was a secret political hand at work that the court was not told about, that the original information on carter page, some of it at least, came from an investigation in a was partially

funded by democrats out there. and those democrats were feeding it inthat was partially funded by democrats out there. and those democrats were feeding it in. why don't any just say we have other sources that we can tell you about? the reason that would not happen according to many intelligence analysts is that there may indeed be other sources, there may be other avenues out there that they do not want to make public because that could somehow imperil the further investigation of all of this. whether or not that is true, we don't know. the very secretive nature of the fisa court is the reason that is it may be hard for the justice department to say here is what is happening and why they think the memo is wrong. >> joining us now, our political analyst josh rmpt ogen and markt me start with you.

saying the fisa court was informed that the source did have political leanings. was that clear enough or was it sponsored by someone with political affiliations? was that specific enough? >> there is no way to know. this is the problem with this whole process. because we have a 3 1/2 page memo from the house republicans, and let's not move anywhere around that, this is a political document. and the fisa application as we learned actually last night on cnn is a 50 page document. and now we're on a slippery slope. because how do -- how does anyone prove exactly what was considered in this application. the forthcoming presumably democratic memo is now ten pages long. so each step we are taking closer to revealing the inner workings of the foreign intelligence surveillance court. and in many ways that is a great thing because the american people doesn't see that.

but with every issuance of information, we're moving towards revealing more on how the national security apparatus works and we're potentially damaging national security. >> so josh, let's talk about the democratic memo. we know that the common practice is that both democrats and republicans and house intel committees, if they would release the memos simultaneously, that didn't happen this time around. and what do you expect we'll hear from the democratic memo and what do you expect from devin nunes who says there are more memos coming? >> yeah, first of all, the process of releasing these memos has been whatever the democrats have been able to get the house intelligence republicans to do. and because the house intelligence republicans have controlled this, they have created a situation whereby their memo will get the first airing and a long airing and edgily if the pressure is high enough, the democrats will release their memo and i'm sure

it will add more information like you said about the -- about whether or not the source of the information was conveyed to the fisa court ain the application, what were the other circumstances surrounding the case to surveil carter page, et cetera, et cetera. in the end we have to look at the credibility of these two institutions. devin nunes sacrificed his credibility last year when he went through the first phase of running into the white house, lying to the american people about it, and then admitting it. in the end what you will have is a he said/he said that doesn't actually get you to the point which is whether or not there was any malfeasance. and it doesn't really tell you whether or not the information in the application or the dossier is true or not. so i point you back to the "washington post" editorial. this is basically a huge

damaging distraction that is meant to sort of occupy our attention and take us away from sort of the examination into the real issue which of course was russia's interference in our election. >> one of the sticking points here is the characterization from the former deputy fbi director andrew mccabe in which according to this memo, he said no surveillance would have been sought without that dossier. which is not the same thing as no surveillance warrant would have been approved without it. democrats say that is not an accurate representation of what mccabe said. clear that up, that no surveillance would have been sought versus no surveillance would have been approved based on the dossier. >> well, it is a key statement. and in fact when i read the memo and i was responding to it and tweeting it out like everybody else, that lining was te was tht

really required additional information because i thought it was quite significant. but now as we hear it has been promulgated by republicans to say this mostly by people who weren't in the room and now we're hearing from those that were that that is not what the former deputy fbi director mccabe actually testified to. so what is the next step in now we'll have to see -- again, i'd love to see all this myself too. but we'll have to see the classified testimony of mccabe to find out whether or not he said this or that. because it will be crucial. and i can't imagine out of a 50 page warrant application that was extended at least three times that the steele dossier was the only piece of information that was justifying any type of surveillance of carter page. and let's look at what trey

gowdy said, he was devin nunes' number one pick to actually read the underlying information. trey gowdy tweeted out that this memo does nothing that impacts or should in any way denigrate the work of the special counsel, which was the whole premise apparently for why this memo was released in the first place. so there is a real disconnects politically and legally. >> all right. we'll pick up right there when when he co we come right back. >> and also we'll talk about john mccain, he is blasting the president saying washington is doing putin's job for him by undermining america's rule of law. more on his warning to members of his own party. plus the united nations says north korea is banking hundreds of millions of dollars in the process of violating sanctions. and remember the missile alert button in hawaii? the man wants to set the record straight now, his explanation ahead.

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visit coolsculpting.com today... for a chance to win a free treatment. with all the drama and fallout around the republican memo, top leaders are concerned that russia is winning the war on our democracy. >> secretary of state rex tillerson warned americans to pay attention, adding mexico could be next. >> we know that russia has fingerprints in a number of elects around the world. we hear this from our european counterparts as well. my advice to mexico would be pay attention. >> josh and mark are back with us. i want to go to the cooperation between nunes and the white house and the obstruction of justice investigation that is happening with bob mueller. sources tell cnn that the president calls his friends saying the lease release of thi

could support his view that the justice department is targeting him and maybe undermine mueller's investigation. in the context of the obstruction of justice investigation, could nunes see some exposure here, some vulnerability? >> what is interesting, what hasn't been very widely reported, because of the big news yesterday, was that a federal district judge here in washington decided a case in which cnn is the plaintiff and i am one of the lawyers for the other plaintiffs to include "usa today" where we sought access to the comey memos, the infamous comey memos that he essentially leaked to the "new york times." and the judge decided because the special counsel submitted ex parte in-camera, meaning we did not see them, affidavit as to the judge to persuade the judge to with hold them. why is this because they are being used potentially and presumably for an obstruction of

justice case. so it is hard to -- this is a really difficult situation when you've got government officials acting in their official capacity undertaking at least on the surface what would appear to be actions we would hope and expect, but with the motives unknown. and even with the president i've seen some people saying, oh, the president of the united states by declassifying this memo, exercising this constitutional authority, that that could serve as obstruction of justice. this is a very complicated case, but let's just say there are a lot of puzzle pieces that mueller is still looking at and this case is not going away anytime soon. >> and you talk about the motives are unknown. what about the don't defenscons josh, did this memo reveal anything consequential about the republican or democratic side of this? >> i think it did, but what it revealed undermined the case that nunes was trying to make. first of all, it revealed that the dossier was not the original source of the russia

investigation, that the investigation was started by information coming in from foreign sources about george papadopoulous, a totally separate issue. it revealed that the controversial fisa warrant was renewed several times including by trump administration and trump hand picked officials. it sort of, you know, purports to prove that the russia investigation was based on faulty information, and in fact it does the opposite. and that is even the skewed version that nunes put out. it sort of speaks to the larger point which is that this is -- the investigations as they are have a very important purpose which is to determine what russia did and its attack on our democracy. this is the point that mccain was getting to and the more that we intentionally undermine that, the more that we hurt our ability to respond to this attack, respond to the next attack that rex tillerson just said is coming and also to

protect our democracy. >> mark, we started the week or at least mid week with reports from sources that the white house was concerned that the fbi director christopher wray was going to quit if this was going to be released, that the top two there at the fbi and rod rosenstein, they went to the white house begging them please do not release this document. what does this mean for wray's relationship with the white house and to a larger extent the justice department, the law enforcement community, intelligence community? their relationship with congress after the declassification of this memo. >> the irony, we keep hearing and i think we heard it in the lead coming into here about constitutional crisis. and typically when we're talking about a constitutional crisis, we have some sort of conflict between the branches of government, the legislative and executive, but yet what we have

is a conflict internally. the president at the white house and his own justice department and its components. and i don't think wray will resign over this. but everyone it seems is on cracking ice as this moves forward. and especially when you've got them saying this memo can't be released. you know, they indicated in the days coming up which seems like a year arrest ear or so ago alrt was going to cause grave damage if this document was released. and that was buzz language to those of us who work in the communi community, i'm on the outside as the lawyer, but because that is the language from the executive order that says this document is top secret. which is in fact what it says at the top. but now it has been declassified. so as i said before, there is a slippery slope because in order to explain all of the details of this, we have to creep closer to more information that would be classified.

and we've already filed court pleadings yesterday saying that this memo and the president's actions requires the release of more information. again, for journalists and lawyers, this is great, we love this information, but the national security community, his own community, the president's, hates this and believes it is causing damage to the system. >> josh, mark, always grateful to have your perspectives here. thank you. all right. the justice department wants a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit against russia's special counsel robert mueller and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. paul manafort who chaired the campaign during the election claims mueller and rosenstein overreached when they filed charges for money laundering and not registering as a foreign lobbyist. the justice department says mueller and rosenstein acted lawfully adding that the lawsuit plainly seeks to interfere with manafort's ongoing criminal prosecution. of course we'll continue to watch this.

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8:31. glad to have your company. so the u.n. is saying north korea wrapped up nearly $200 million last year by ignoring sanctions and exporting banned goods. pyongyang allegedly exported coal to china, malaysia, russia and vietnam by falsifying

documents, supplied weapons to syria and myanmar, and is illegally fishing near mozambique. we want to bring in our security analyst. samantha, why are the sanctions first and foremost not working? >> well, i actually want say that they rrnaren't working. president trump has spearheaded incredible entinternational sanctions regime against north korea and kim jong-un is desperate to make money. he will do whatever he can to make up for lost revenue. keep in mind that north korea and china used to do $3 billion worth of trade. now this report does allege that there is still some trade going on illicitly, but that is a fraction of what used to happen. kim jong-un is using every trick in the book, false documentation, offshore companies, selling arms and information to other criminals like bashar al assad again to make up for lost revenue. i've worked on sanctions implementation against countries

like iran and libya and the truth is sanctions invasion is about as old as sanctions themselves. that is nothing new. that is why we have monitoring bodies like the committee that produced this report for the united nations as well as monitoring at a national level. so in this case i think we have to wait and see how the countries named in the report respond. how russia and china respond to the allegations. and whether they take action. i think the real question here is are sanctions working toward achieving our objective of stopping the development of north korea's nuclear program and to date i have seen no indication that they are. >> $200 million, i mean that is nothing to sneeze at. but i remember speaking at the beginning of the year with an expert who said, listen, kim jong-un even mentioned in some capacity how north korea was suffering because of these

sangs. he mentioned in his new year's day speech to his people. do we have a gauge of what it is like in north korea since these sanctions have taken place? because obviously this shows the desperation. >> and that is a great question. i definitely don't think that the $200 million figure is anything to sneeze at, but we have to be clear that often particularly when sanctions regimes are new, people find loopholes. i do think that north korea is feeling the pressure, how could they not. you are going from billions of dollars say with a country like china to a much smaller figure. and i do think part of the motivation behind north korea agreeing to have these talks with south korea in advance of the olympics is probably a result of the pressure that they are feeling as a result of sanctions. i think that they are using these talks as an excuse to kind of bilaterally warm up to the south probably to try to get concessions from south korea like they have in the past. >> all right. thank you so much, appreciate

it. we'll have the full investigative report on north korea violating u.n. sanctions at 10:00 right here on cnn. the man responsible for sending out that false missile alert last month in hawaii is trying to clear everything up now. he says he was 100% sure that the missile alert was real. according to the official account, the call that initiated the drill began with a person saying exercise, exercise. but the worker did not hear that part. >> it was supposed to be on speaker phone, but someone picked up the receiver and the first part of the message, exercise, exercise, exercise, was not heard. the message i heard was this is not a drill. and i did not hear exercise in the message at all. >> according to his attorney, he is considering a defamation lawsuit against the state to making false statements about what led to that incident. with fall midterms coming up, will the release of the

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ask your doctor if switching to eliquis is right for you. infrastructure, tax reform, immigration. all those issues pushed aside as the release of the nunes memo takes over washington. joining me now to talk about what it means for the fall midterm elections and for you potentially, political commentator andre bower, an opinion columnist at the hill and former aide. gentlemen, welcome back. an del andre, i want to start with the tweet from trey gowdy. he tweeted yesterday, i remain 100% confidence in robert

mueller, the contents of this memo do not in any way discredit his investigation. do you agree with that? >> i don't have enough information that these congressmen are privy to a lot more than i am. like so many americans, i look at this, i hear what the democrats say, what the republicans say and then hear with a journalists like you say, and it becomes very muddy for individuals like myself who really pay attention because of so much information overload and what the real truth is. >> so brent, cnn has sources telling it that the president on phone calls with friends who said that releasing this memo will help to discredit mueller and his russia investigation despite what we're hearing from trey gowdy. has it? >> no, and it won't. and i think these attacks on the fbi, these attacks on the justice system are disgraceful and hurt america and i think it is outrageous. what i think is going to happen next, i believe the whole purpose of the discrediting and shallow and partisan report by nunes about a fisa warrant he

never read was nothing more than an excuse do a saturday night massacre. he will fire rosenstein, fire mueller, refuse to testify before mueller. and i think it will create the crisis when he does that. i think it would be useful and helpful for director wray to make it clear that he will resign in protest if he executes those firings. and a brief word about senator john mccain who is the gold standard for patriotism. he says that this report and these attacks on the fbi help russia and putin while they are attacking america. which they do and which the russians are. i think john mccain is one of the greatest americans that has lived in two different centuries. and i root for him to come out of his crisis. it moved me profoundly that while he is fighting for his life, he is also fighting for american democracy as recently as last night and i just want to

tell you senator mccain, if you are watching this show, god bless you, god bless america, god bless everything you stand for. america, a grateful nation is rooting for you. and cheering for you to come back to washington because we need you now more than ever as a great crisis approaches. >> andre, you wanted to respond? >> i endorsed john mccain when he ran for president, but i don't think there is a problem when members of congress point out that in fact there is a possibility that someone used information that was paid for by political party to enter to a fisa court. >> why not wait for the inspector general report? isn't that is what the inspector job is supposed to do? why not wait for that instead of release simply one side of the story just the republican's memo and not wait for the scrubbing, the protection of sources and methods from the democrat's memo and at least release those together? >> i actually agree with you on

that point. we should release both together. but there is a pattern here where you see the attorney general meet with the former president of the united states, just the optics don't look good. when you hear they meet with hillary clinton but not under oath after they have already -- the optics don't look good. so when you criticize -- >> what about the optics of jeff sessions meeting with the russian ambassador? there are optics that the president trump and his attorney general and some of the concerns on his side as well. you've jumped off to loretta lynch who is post-office. >> there is no problem in questioning people in authority. that is part of one of the values we have here in america that a lot of other countries don't have. so if someone sees something that they feel is inappropriate activity, just because you go after an individual at the doj or at the fbi doesn't mean you're condemning the agency. it means you are condemning the acts of certain individuals within there. and we all have a right to question those actions. but i do agree, both sides

should release everything and the american people should be able to disseminate information for themselves about what is true and what is not true. >> what does it mean for november? will people care about the memo released in february when the mid terms come around in november? >> no, i think the nunes memg kn memo will go down as one of the great attacks on the fbi and will be soon forgotten as much as the third game of the nfl football season for my green bay packers. what could decimate republicans if they are not careful is that they end up with trump firing, creating a constitutional crisis after firing rosenstein and mueller which again i hope the fbi director will make it clear would cause his resignation. i hope republican leaders in the house and senate will support protection for mueller and make it clear from their end -- >> the white house has said raj shah last night said they are hoping that rosenstein will stay on the job and there are no concerns about firing him at least at this point.

of course we heard from the president saying you can figure that out when asked if he would fire rod rosenstein and his level of confidence in him. we have to wrap it there. thank you both. so a teenager, a 9ninth grader taking matters in his own hands to help with puerto rico's hurricane recovery. he's with us next. ♪ one is the only number ♪ that you'll ever need ♪ staying ahead isn't about waiting for a chance. it's about the one bold choice you make, that moves you forward. ( ♪ ) the one and only cadillac escalade. come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac escalade. get this low-mileage lease on this 2018 cadillac escalade from around $879 per month. visit your local cadillac dealer. from around $879 per month. sucthey read more.have one thing in common. how do they find the time? ... with audible. audible has the world's largest selection of audiobooks. for just $14.95 a month... you get a credit good for any audiobook ...

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it's been more than four months since hurricane maria tore across puerto rico and after all this time, nearly half a million people still don't have power. and there is a 15-year-old from san juan and he is taking action. he is raising money to buy portable solar lamps and hand-operated washing machines for people in the hardest hit areas. and it has worked. he's raised homore than $100,00 so far. he's delivered more than 1,000 of the solar powered lamps and

he is with us now. salvadore is in chicago for a conference. but he does live in puerto rico. thank you for being here. first of all, how is it that you were able to raise so much money and what is the number you're up to now? >> first of all, thank you for having me. so far i've been able to raise over $130,000. that is through the online platform and also through corporate donations. >> are you still collecting money? >> yes, the campaign is still open. >> so help us understand, i know that you had traveled to some of these towns. you have seen for yourself what is happening there. help us understand how people are living right now. >> it is very crazy to think that there are still people without power and four months without power is extremely traumatizing experience as they have told me. a lot of people are living without roofs, with tarps as their roofs. and some don't even have roofs.

yet they still have a spark of hope which really enlightens me when i exit get to see them. >> how is your family? when i say that i had read that you had gone to some of these towns, is your family -- do you have power? >> yes. luckily i have power. and my family is okay. my grandfather though suffers from multiple sclerosis, so immediately after the hurricane, that was a very big rob. >> problem. >> so when you see these people and you deliver them, you deliver the lampt lamps and was machines, talk to us about how these people respond. there is a lamp. okay. go ahead. >> here they are. >> so how do the people respond when you hand this to them? >> they are extremely grateful. personally, i went -- a case that stood out, i went to a

young woman who was reading out in the sun and i asked her what she was reading. she was reading homer's illiad as if it were not complicated enough. and she really liked to read. so when i gave her the lamp, i told her for the first time in three months, you can read at night. >> i'm so sorry we have run out of time, but i have to tell you, we are so impressed. talk about making things happen. congratulations to you. keep going. and let's check back this with you and see just how far this goes. >> thank you very much. >> take good care. and we are now fewer than 36 hours away from kickoff. a live report from minneapolis next. ♪ upbeat music you wouldn't feel good not knowing the price here. don't let it happen when you buy your diabetes test strips. with the accu-chek guide simplepay program, you pay the same low price.

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one day left until super bowl lii between the new england patriots and the philadelphia eagles. fans are up in minneapolis for the big game, got it stay warm about that. >> yes, you do. coy wire, mitt ten ens or glove? >> i'm a dumb dumb this morning. i don't have either. the city streets here are ready. super bowl live. formerly average ticket price for a regular nfl game, 50 bucks. average price of this one? -- inaudible. speaking of money, patriots are by 4 1/2 points. what do you think is going to win? i caught up with the nfl's leading rusher record breaking rookie kareem hunt and others to find out their prediction.

listen to this. >> i'm going to have to lean towards the patriots. you can't go against tom. >> i never really go against tom brady. i seen his story a lot of times. >> time and time again. >> quarterback coach for the philadelphia eagles was high teammate here in buffalo. i want to see him get a super bowl ring. so i'm pulling for philadelphia. and if they win, i think it will be an upset and i will never bet against tom brady, but anything is possible. >> now, the super bowl host committee has done a great job with activations for allowing fans to experience the bold north. you have to brave the elements for some of it. andy scholes was up for it, he does crossfit. >> oh, it's so cold. >> cold in-gedeedindeed. we have more of andy and jim

kelly in our cnn bleacher report. that is 2:30 today right here on cnn. >> that is trouble, but fun trouble. thank you so much coy. >> all right. smerconish starts for you right now. i'm michael smerconish coming to you from the home city of the philadelphia eagles. we welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. well, after weeks of drum rolls, the knnotorious memo is out. it aims to discredit the steele dossier partly because he leaked his findings to reporteris cough. is cough is covfefe is here to discuss. but what