christopher wray's response to senators question and along the lines of would you have done what james comey did to talk about not investigating the hillary clinton email server? caller: actually, i think they put him, director comey, under such pressure, that he got a little cramped and he went ahead and did something to not only protect himself, but the integrity of the entire agency, the fbi because they were not going to let go of him. the democratic side was going to and he gotd pump him really upset when they mentioned that blackberry. , the carrie johnson response from christopher wray. the line of questioning. would you have done what james comey did? guest: he said he could not imagine a situation in which you would be holding a press theerence about a person justice department had decided not to charge with any wrongdoing and then speak openly about allegations with them. he said he felt his hands were tied because that attorney general loretta lynch had met with bill clinton on the tarmac in arizona last year and created an appearance of impropriety. i will point out and christoph

unlike james comey, i respected as james comey should have respected the privilege that he waived which he had no authority to do in order to get that. >> one final question. he got fired by the president. >> do you think it is okay in the book deal according to the report that he's going to go into details? do you think that's good? >> i asked the questions. you enter them, jay. either one answer that one. >> at me ask you one final question. who is paying you and all of the outside lawyers? >> so i am retained by the main law firm that is involved in the representation of the president and that is retained as counsel. our ability that i would do for this kind of case goes to his firm and they pay us. >> yes, whose pay and not. who's paying them? >> that situation is from mr. castor with firm and his ever paying them. we are sub paid by the council. i'm not in privity of contract as we say in the law but the person in pain the organization paying the bills for the firm. >> do you know if president trump for the private legal defense? the reason i ask is there is talk the campaign commi

james comey or donald trump? attorney general jeff sessions is going to be asked under oath by the special prosecutor, did president trump order everyone out of the room? did he order you out of the room? what do you think jeff sessions is going to say under oath in answer to that question, which is a key obstruction of justice question because the obstruction of justice case against the president is very much about that meeting, very much about what was his incentive for kicking everyone out of that room, to have a private conversation with the fbi director. did he intend to obstruct justice in that conversation and not want any witnesses? jeff sessions is going to be asked, did the president kick you out of the room? do you think jeff sessions is going to simply say he agrees with donald trump and just doesn't remember, or do you think he's just going to say, yes. yes, the president kicked us out of the room. do you think jeff sessions is going to agree with former fbi director james comey's testimony that he's

i didn't ask you about james comey. >> jay: i do not think the denials are suspect. i do not think the denial by the president of the united states is suspect at all. >> chris: here's the email exchange in june of 2016 between don, jr., setting up the meeting between don, jr., and the russians. rob goldstone writes the prosecutor of russia met with his father this morning and in their meeting offered to provide the trump campaign with some official documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father. this is obviously very high-level and sensitive information that is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. don, jr., response, "if it's what to say, i love it, especially later in the summer." doesn't that contradict the denial of any contact between the trump campaign and the russians? >> jay: what it states was there would be a meeting -- use of the russians, this was a lawyer who was russian. this was a lawyer who ended -- was russian. what took place at that meeting, it's been

the former fbi director james comey could be in serious legal trouble and had committed several felonies because four of the seven memos about his conversations with president trump did, in fact, contain classified information. we know from comey's testimony that he shared at least one of the memos with his friend. remember the columbia professor? who leaked it to "the new york times" on his behalf because he wanted a special counsel. he wanted that to lead to a special counsel. it did. according to the same report, the fbi considers the memos that comey made government property. typed on a government computer in a government car. of course, comey's friend is denying that the memos that he was given received classified's information. t how would he know? he's denying giving the press the actual memos. really? what it all boils down to, what we are now living through is a massive, huge double standard. selective moral outrage. we know real felonies, real crimes were committed. things the mainstream media will not report or tell you. hillary clinton mishandled and destroyed top-secret clas

on may 9th of this year, president trump fired james comey. though we're still sorting out all of the circumstances and details surrounding the president's decision, it does not appear that mr. comey was fired because the bureau was a mess as originally stated. nor is there evidence that mr. comey was dismissed because rank and file fbi agents had either lost confidence in him or because of his handling of the clinton administration -- investigation. rather, we find that rank and file agents of the fbi did and continue to overwhelmingly support james comey. in addition, deputy attorney general rosenstein told members of congress that when he wrote his memo, president trump had already decided to remove mr. comey as fbi director. based on press reports and the president's own words, the reason mr. comey was dismissed was because he would not pledge his loyalty to the president and he would not lift the cloud of the russia investigation. president trump said in a televised interview, for example, i was going to fire comey regardless of recommenda

he was indicating that he felt that james comey was presenting him with this information and dangling it to show that he had something on the president. i think in the president's mind, that was about keeping his own job, james comey keeping his own job. but again, another remarkable statement from the president. look, he has made, in fairness, a series of remarkable statements about james comey, you know, beginning with when he fired him. but this was a first. and this was a new revelation on how he is viewing that chain of events during the transition process. >> i don't want to wait to talk about the mueller stuff. >> we're here! >> this was a big deal. because this issue of what the president can do with the special counsel or should do with a special counsel, we're talking about it before the show, it seems reasonable that if the president has no financial dealings with russia, no financing, nothing to be worried about, he should want the special counsel to go down that road and come up with nothing. and that would be the best validation for the president's position. instead, he

james comey is a boy scout. i don't know what lynch did.ything good. dagen: after the james comey testimony where he said he felt queasy when loretta lynch said refer to it as a matter, even diane feinstein said she should go in front of the judiciary committee. >> at the end of the day there is no comparison between russia's influence and trying to impact our democracy and bill clinton talking to loretta lynch for few minutes on the tarmac. if an investigation is called for, fine. i think she has made it clear that she is willing to come forward and share her information, but at the end of the day you are literally comparing apples and oranges and trying to compare the russia situation and their influence in our democratic process versus president clinton speaking to loretta lynch for a few minutes. dagen: gary b, it was a matter of days after that meeting in late june between lynch and clinton that james comey stepped up and said we are not going to recommend charges against hillary clinton. >> exactly. i'm not sure i agree with adrian on

what's going to be done in regard to james comey? they need to investigate james comey.re should be a grand jury and panel. let's understand what he did. he had a conversation -- several now. he had a series of conversations with the president of the united states. he went to his government computer, put them into a memo form, put them in his government desk and then releases them. and now he says this was his own recollection recorded. the government is saying no, it's not. as government property. they are crimes. >> sean: we are going to dig deeper. we will point out the hypocrisy and talk about how the media has an agenda that will not help you, the american people. coming up, on this program, we are holding washington accountable. it is time for republicans to work and keep their promises. senator ted cruz will join us next and also later tonight ... >> at the west will never, ever be broken. our values will prevail. our people will thrive and our civilization will triumph. >> sean: president trump showed the world that leading from the front, what it looks like. dr.

reporter: president's decision to fire james comey was a central line of questioning. comey's claim the president asked him for pledge of loyalty, wray said he met with mr. trump at the white house along with justice department officials and had a different experience. >> no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process. i sure as heck didn't offer one. >> you would not give one if asked? >> correct. reporter: wray was asked if like comey he would be uncomfortable in a one-on-one? >> would you meet in the oval office with the president with no one else present? >> i think it would depend on the circumstances, senator. i think it would be highly unlikely but i think there, i could imagine a situation where there would be some national security matter where it might call for it. reporter: president supports the use of controversial interrogation tactics critics labeled torture, wray laid out his position. >> torture is wrong. it is unacceptable. it is illegal and i think it is ineffective. reporter: the fired fbi director did not escape criti

the president tweeting -- james comey leaked classified information to the media. illegal. also, top adviser kellyanne conway was out this morning talking about it as well saying that comey did release that information. saying it was classified, yet again, wolf, james comey made it clear on june 8th, no. that memo released did not have classified information despite the fact the hill is reporting that four other of his memos did contain classified information. >> and the classified information from the other memos were not leaked to his law professor friend? only one memo and comey made it clear that he did not believe there was classified information in that memo? >> reporter: right. >> that eventually made its way to the "new york times." >> yes. >> thanks very much. jessica schneider reporting for us. >>> coming up, after months of devastating battles, iraqi troops have retaken the city of mosul. what this means and what's next for the war-torn city and that nation when we come back. >>> iraqi troops retaken the streets of mosul in iraq. abadi made the announcem

how does james comey claimant?hat he knew the discussions had caused by information, and this exchange with the intelligence committee, he explained his actions. >> i found it very interesting that in the memo that you wrote after this february 14th post, you made clear that you wrote that memo in a way that was unclassified. >> my thinking was if i write it in a way that does not include anything that would trigger a classification, that will make it easier for us to discuss within the fbi and the government and to hold onto it in a way that makes it accessible to us. >> another important development on this, and the less hour, fox news has confirmed that's close to the matter that these summaries of it trump trump-james comey meeting are being handled as records and not personal memos or recollections that he claimed. >> shannon: big difference. katherine harris, thank you very much. >> we will support the operations of iraqis, but it is the question of where to fight next. we know what is constant that they will

loupe lou fbi director christopher ray distanced himself from fired director james comey today. omey's handling of the hillary clinton e-mail scandal in a senate confirmation hearing today. >> in my experience as a prosecutor and as head of the criminal division, i understand there are department policies that government policies on individuals. and i would follow those policy. i can't imagine a situation where an fbi director i would give a press conference on an uncharged individual much less talk about it. >> lou: our next guest said comey may have committed a crime concerning the handles of classified information. joining us is gregg jarret. >> >> nice to be here. >> lou: unusual hearing. you would have thought the democrats were leading the questions that unfolded and to hear again in this case a nominee to be fbi director and in the case of james comey and talking about an independent agency which is constitutional not. >> it is a myth that seems to have gained credibility all on its own. the fact is, the president can direct the attorney general and fbi director to investi

he will replace fired fbi director, james comey.nd the podium, about to come back to the podium and take questions from reporters. why does that matter? because he was attacked over and over again in an interview last night president trump gave "the new york times" saying he would not have hired sessions had he known sessions would recuse himself from the russia probe. we go to the pentagon where a critical meeting is underway. the president walked up the stairs with members of his cabinet. he said isis is falling fast. he is meeting with key cabinet members. he is looking at the next steps and policy in afghanistan. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins us now. >> reporter: the president was asked if he was sendsing more troops to afghanistan. that's a decision every here at the pentagon is waiting for and the president simply said, we'll see. we don't expect this to be a decision making meeting. in is more of optics. this is the commander in chief sitting in the pentagon sitting for 90 minutes with top officials, top whit

of james comey, the direc -- di. leaked material. and the list goes on.ft-wing media is subject morning itself in trifle at an -- in trivialita lack of consequence. >> the last 48 hours they have given a lot of ammunition to opponents of the media. at the end of the day what has happened to me at least doesn't establish evidence that any sort of crime was committed. but it does call into question why on this meeting occurred. when i saw the news break i thought what didn't they have a campaign structure in place that would have prevented donald jr. from going to meet with his russian lawyer. you wish someone would have said this don't end well when you immerse yourself in the world of russian espionage. lou: i can see myself -- i have never been in a campaign. but the moment that you have something about your opponent, irrespective -- i personally would probably go with left just as quickly perhaps, even quicker. i might not have delayed even six days as donald trump, jr. did. but at the end of the day there is nothing here. there no collusion. there is n

different from james comey. >> jessica: james comey about a year ago, no one knew about him. gotten out the last year. i think that he does have a lot to atone for in terms of what he has done on both sides. but i do think that the investigation is hopefully rolling on in a bipartisan way. >> melissa: do you believe that it is? >> ron: the mueller investigation, he has hired all of the democrats to be prosecutors. he subcontracted out the legal department at the dnc. hillary donors, none of them are republican donors, and i'm not saying if you donate to democrats, you cannot be a good prosecutor. isn't it odd that you get 14 prosecutors and they are all either democrat donors big time or no political, no republicans on the record. >> sandra: one of them did donate to jason jay pitts. >> ron: a big democrats, and that's guy is a democrat, he is a big hillary supporter. >> harris: i did have a chatty kathy doll growing up. it did you have one of those? and i think that we had a little bit of the sound of him talking about the book deal. i don't know if anybody is surprised by t

sekulow, i did not ask you about james comey. i asked you about the specific e-mail. >> can people conclude because of what was said in the e-mail between donald trump and mr. gold stone and what he claim of this information coming from russia, can people say that's enough to trigger an investigation? there is no legal act there yet. is that a trigger for an investigation? >> well, here is the thing. donald trump jr. said that he will cooperate with everybody and he made it clear when he was on air talking about it and again as a lawyer, i look at what would -- you say does this trigger an investigation. what law may have been violated here. again, the meeting and what took place at the meeting and based on all the information you said. is that a violation of any law or stature? i raise that question by the way with a former director comey because that's the bases of where all that started. it is important to have a full context. you asked a full question and i gave you the full context. >> why is the leak that james comey leakin

he has the authority to fire james comey, and he did. look, this whole thing with if you're going towards the -- conflating the russia investigation with these allegations on obstruction, the position on that, and i've been on your broadcast a couple of times talking about this. the idea that the president of the united states fired james comey cannot raise to the level of obstruction of justice, and you've had a lot of people on this network saying exactly the same thing. >> when you were here in june, you were adamant that the president himself is not under investigation. >> right. >> are you still -- is that still operative today? >> yes. nothing has changed since not only when i was here, but nothing has changed since when james comey told the president he was not under investigation on three different occasions. we have no notification of any investigation going on of the president of the united states. >> and what's your understanding of what special counsel bob mueller is investigating if he's not investigating the president? >> i

friend. >> i think this my recollection recorded as a conversation. >> president trump claimed james comey leaked classifies information to leadia, that so illegal, one of trum trump's aides. reporter: senator warner is senior democrato the intelligence committee. >> a year ago this month, director comey chastised clinton and her team. comey game memos to a columbia school professor. in washington catherine herridge fox news. lou: our first guest said that stealing government secrets and then mishandling them amount too crime, so is leaking classified material. giants us chris farrell. let's start with 7 memoranda 4 of which cop contained classified information. at-this-point, leaking one of them it unclear although the columbia law professor says that there was no classified information in it. the fact they were leaked in itself is -- is it not a violation of federal record keeping laws. >> it is. the case where mr. comey b be o-- took off with u.s. government records, they were not his to take in the first place. and mishandling national defense information, i am also a former special ag

why is this a supportered by james comey and christopher ray. the fbi is not an independent agency of any sort or kind. >> no tis one thing to say i am guided by law and not politics. comey inserted he was a quited of any kind of accountability. the fbi director is an inferior officer in the executive branch. that means when hoover investigated martin luther king. would it be improper for the president kentucky to say don't do that. >> lou: that is the system and reality of the matter that the fbi director may not want to have dipper with the president but that is not his choice. he may have other choices. he worked for the president and attorney general. >> what the democrats want is to create a situation where the fbi director is told to go to war with the administration torg show your independence and that is not the proper role either. you follow the law and don't try to line yourself against the president to impress the party and media. >> lou: i think the senate judiciary has respect for christopher ray. he turned over the meeting to the d

james comey was dealt a difficult hand. i think he made some mistakes in the way he handled this.director being a source of leaks, including memos that could include classified information. very troubling. this undermines our support from our allies which we share classified information with and could well dry up that information. so we need to get to the bottom of this. i'm confident we will. >> senator, when he first came forward with that and said yes, i called up my friend and my friend leaked this essentially to "the new york times," i thought, wow, is this just business as usual in washington? is this what the the head of the fbi would do if he wants to get his version of the story out? >> i talked to christopher ray, the nominee for the fbi. i told him i thought the single most important thing he could do is to help restore the reputation of the fbi and the department of justice that suffered mightily during the obama years under eric holder and loretta lynch. the reason why director comey did what he did is he said he lost confidence in the attorney general's ability to be

tweeting james comey leaked class if ied information to the media. that is so illegal. erring to a story on fox. according to sources more than half of comey's private memos documenting conversations with the president contained classified material, but the hill report does not say that the memo comey leaked to his friend contained classified information. this is how comey described that memo when he testified last month. >> what kind of information did you give to a friend? >> that the flynn conversation. that the president asked me -- but the conversation in the oval office. >> you didn't consider your memo or your sense of that conversation to be a government document? you considered it to be somehow your own personal document that you could share with the media as you wanted to? >> correct. >> to your friend? >> i understood this to be my recollection recorded of my confers with the president as a private citizen i felt free to share that. i felt important to get it out. >> all right. with me now brian stelter, cnn senior media correspondent and also jessica snyder.

the fbi director, james comey, fired. not just fired, but smeared and disparaged and insulted by the white house, by the president, by the president's lawyers, by conservative media, by republicans in congress. also, the acting fbi director, andrew mccabe. not fired. but the president now increasingly campaigning against him by name, deriding him by name, accusing him of corruption, saying that mccabe never should have been hired as the acting fbi director. that attack on andrew mccabe now being joined by conservative media, by republicans in congress. and now tonight, a conservative news source, one that's owned by sinclair broadcasting, which is emerging as kind of the successor to breitbart news to the trump media outlet on the right, they're reporting as of tonight that a third person on this list, the fbi general counsel, another one of these senior officials on this very short list, this right-wing media outlet circa is reporting tonight that, quote, fbi general counsel james a. baker is purportedly under a justice

listen to james comey.so that friend could get that information into the public media. >> correct. >> what kind of information was that? >> i understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president as a private citizen i felt free to share that i felt it very important to get it out. >> so were all of your memos that you rowrded unclassified or other departments to, memos that might be yours as a private citizen? >> i'm sorry, i'm not following the question. >> i think you said you used classified. >> not the classified documents. ununclassified. my view was that the content of those unclassified -- memorialization of those conversations was my recollection recorded. ainsley: congressman? >> well, look, when he was the fbi director meeting with the president he wasn't a private citizen. there is some executive privilege there everybody doesn't get to say i changed hats and now i'm not a classified person and i can just hand out this information. steve: sure. brian: can i ask for

sources revealed that kelly was so angry at the way president trump fired fbi director james comey, he told comey he might resign his position at the time as homeland security supervisor. >>> also president trump intends to sign the sanctions bill but won't say when. russian president vladimir putin is already retaliating, exp expelling hundreds of diplomatic staff and planning to consecrate properties. >>> the north korea new ballistics missile was the most successful yet. it went 6,000 miles, putting many american cities at risk. >>> let's go straight for the very latest. this is a bombshell. jim acosta is working the story for us. jim, another major shake-up. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. ne earlier this morning president trump was insisting there was no white house chaos and this afternoon, his staff plunged into more turmoil as embattled communications director anthony scaramucci stepped aside. scaramucci has been in the headlines almost as much as the president has in the last 10 days as he's been on the job as communications director, and that he planned to go after people he

plus, the white house response to a report, former fbi director james comey may have memos containing sensitive information. and -- >> let's all have a promise on repeal and spend more time getting it done. >> julie: as senators returned to work in our nation's capital, fresh indications that g.o.p. efforts to unite over health care faces new hurdles. it's all happening now. >> eric: we stocks of the fox news alert, the latest controversy concerning russia. the white house right now on the defensive over a new report that donald trump, jr., met with the kremlin connected russian lawyer during the campaign to supposedly try to get some dirt on hillary clinton. others claim it is just opposition. we will examine this throughout the next hour, this is the next hour of "happening now," i'm eric in it for jon scott. >> julie: "the new york times" raising questions about the meeting, saying donald trump, jr., was promised damaging information on his father's apartment opponent, hillary clinton. donald trump junior tweeted this morning... we are going to have more on this developing story wi

they asked him straight up, were you asked for a loyalty pledge, as james comey says he was.d no. if you were told to follow through on a legal order, would you follow through on that order? he said no. would you go so far as to resign? all these kinds of things that arose out of james comey's own experience with donald trump as president, on this exchange clearly he didn't want to go there, right? he didn't say he knew the question was about donald trump, jr. he didn't want to go there. he got there. foreign government contactss you absolutely pickup the phone and call the fbi. eventually he got there, but listen, this is washington so he's aware of the politics. by the way, it was a republican asking the question. it wasn't a democrat leading him to that answer. >> i love that line, listen, pal. >> also ben sass, another republican senator, said to him, like i want you to make you a pledge to us if anybody comes to you and tries to shut down an investigation of yours, this is another comey moment. if anybody comes to you and -- you'll tell us. you're going to come to our co

with regard to the russia investigation, do you stand by your recommendation to fire james comey?ed several times about this, and yes i do. >> martha: whose idea was originally to fire a former fbi director? >> i've also testified about that, and i will be talking publicly about anything within the scope of the ongoing investigations. >> martha: but in that testimony, you did indicate that you wrote the memo and you believed that the president was on board with that idea when you wrote the memo. correct? >> yes. >> martha: 's he felt compelled to write this memo based on james comey's decision not to prosecute hillary clinton, which if it was the wrong decision. >> i don't think that's a fair characterization. it was not the decision whether or not to prosecute or to investigate, it addresses the communication of that information to the public. >> martha: how so? >> as explained in the memo and as i've explained publicly, there is a principal in the department of justice that's very important. that is when we are investing in people we do it confidentially. we make a determination

three days later, director, then director james comey said no charges would be filed.is also of course an obama donor. for more on the russia probe, the battle over healthcare on capitol hill, we are joined by kimberly guilfoyle, co-host of "the five," former prosecutor. and co-host of the -- of "the five." what is the president going to do? he's being assailed on all side. he has speaker ryan and mitch mcconnell acting as if this is political business as usual. kimberly: isn't it remarkable. he's having to battle people in his own party. they promised him the world and delivered nothing. you further see his presidency being undermined, even though they handed him the house and senate. you would think they would be able to get something done. but he's battling even harder with people in his own party. still it seems the president has some level of optimism about this and saying that mitch mcconnell has to get this done. so what is paul ryan doing? what is mitch mcconnell doing? why is this difficult? why is it people are behaving in the way they are. and mishmashing th

i bring this up because you brought up james comey t hill reported the memos written by james comey,e had information written on it that was classified. we don't know if they left the fbi or his possession. some was handed to a columbia university professor. do you have concerned based on this reporting about the fbi director that the memos could contain classified information. >> memos in the files of the fbi director contain classified information. the information he made public was not classified in any way but, instead, relate to the threats made against him. he was a man that wanted to keep his job. >> he said hillary clinton's handling of classified information was careless. the question becomes, even if that classified information were in the memo he handed over to his friend in columbia, which he testified had no classified information. what about the handling of it. was it on a note pad? how did he maintain the documented? did he take them home? do you have questions as they pertain to this information? >> i have no questions at all. i have no reason to think the fbi directo