that paper trail from director comey includes a memo written by james comey on february 14th immediately after he met one on one with the president in the oval office. that memo reportedly says that president trump told director comey to shut down the fbi's investigation into the national security adviser mike flynn. mike flynn had resigned the day before that meeting because of his undisclosed contacts with russian officials. now two people who say they have read comey's memo say the memo quotes the president directly from that conversation saying about the flynn investigation, quote, i hope you can let this go. so there is a lot to this story. the white house is denying this conversation took place. james comey would probably be a pretty good witness if it came down to a he said/he said disagreement about whether or not this conversation happened. particularly if he contemporaneously documented the contents of that conversation when it happened and he can prove it. but it's possible the white house could also prove it in terms of their side of the story. if they are not erasing that pr

according to the comey memo, comey was in the oval office when the president asked everybody else in the room to leave including president mike pence and the attorney general jeff sessions. everybody out but the two men. that's when the memo indicates the president asked james comey to stop investigating michael flynn. according to the document, the president told comey, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. and he's a good guy. i hope you can let this go. the memo indicates the president told director comey that he should consider putting reporters in prison for publishing previously classified information. the white house denied the memo. today the president blasted the news media to graduates of the united states coast guard academy. he said you can't let them get you down, get in the way:0 your dreams. president trump fired james comey last week and the president later admitted russian was on his mind when he made the decision. president trump suggested on twitter that he might have tapes of his conversations with the fbi director. the white ho

one other point with comey memo. e rightly focused on comey alleging that trump told him to quit it on the russia or the flynn investigation. it's worth noting and brian stelter has noted this. he also said he should look into prosecuting more journalists. david's point is right. there's a tendency to assume -- this is not journalists' fault. journalists did not set up the meeting with james comey and donald trump. journalists did not tell donald trump to ask jeff sessions and mike pence to leave. journalists -- according to the memo, journalists did not say, hey, you should tell comey to back off flynn because he is a good guy. journalists are exposing this. we did not create these facts. the idea of cab sasabotage. that is fine for the republican base. nothing that the three of us or the two evof you say. what is at issue is the fbi director in a thmemo allege tha the president of the united states said to stop or urged him to stop investigating. we need to focus on that one thing. that is of critical import. all of

comey was so appalled by the president's comments, he documented the exchange. one of a number of memos he wrote out of concern that the president was trying to stop the investigation. the white house flatly denying the allegations saying the president has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation. this is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation with the president and mr. comey. in a tweet last week, president trump threatened or warned comey about potential tapes of the conversatio conversations. tapes comey hopes exist to corroborate his account. the meeting happened one day after flynn was fired and two weeks after the president summoned comey to a dinner at the white house, reportedly asking him to pledge loyalty. comey refused. three months later, comey was fired. the president said russia was on his behind when he made that decision. >> when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >> reporter: on capitol hill, top congressional leaders stunned at the latest bombshe

memos. i've covered mr. comey for a number of years, and it is his habit as is any good prosecutor and good lawyer to the memorialize information. very common for lawyers to do that, especially people dealing with criminal cases. so, not surprising that he did this. there's probably a number of other memos that a lot of us certainly in washington, d.c. would be very interested to see. >> joe johns for us in washington. another busy day ahead for you, sir. >>> let's bring in our panel. julian zelizer. david drucker. and michael moore. good morning to all of you. thank you for being here. david drucker, let me start with you. john mccain said last night, quote, this is reaching watergate size and scale. is he correct? >> well, we're going to have to find out what happens today at 5:00 after monday and tuesday. you never know where this thing leads. look, i think what threw a lot of people for a loop here in d.c., all kidding aside, we have the revelation of a memo that comey prepared. what anybody thinks about comey

comey memos requested. former fbi director to testify, and they want copies of his memos as president trump sits down with finalists to replace former director comey. >> house speaker paul ryan has confidence in president trump and just wants the facts before judging anything but others are joining the call for a special prosecutor. >>> fight, fight, fight. president trump says no politician has ever been treated more unfairly. his advice to graduates is fight, don't back down and never ever give up, and putin's

the man who broke that bombshell story, amazing, about the comey memo last night. john finer, former chief of staff for john kerry, and the former head of the office of legal counsel for president reagan and george h.w. bush. we have a full house. michael, yesterday was a pretty big day. do you think you can double down and give us another one you? >> i don't know. i guess the real story is how will the republicans respond? it looks like these letters that have gone out were signed by both parties. it didn't seem like yesterday the republicans had really changed their tone many regard to mr. trump in these investigations. certainly the idea that this letter went out is a sign of bipartisanship. and it remains to be seen in the days that come whether the republican there's push hard and ramp up these investigations. >> we just heard from the white house press secretary from sean spicer for two days in a row, they have done off camera audio only briefings. and this is after, we know that in speaking to erdogan, he said maybe some of these journalists sthog jail. ther

how about the james comey memo? ur committee chairman richard burr, republican, told them yesterday he's skeptical about the memo. does that mean they plan to subpoena the memo? i know jason chaffetz is. >> i think we'll definitely get those. i am not skeptical. richard burr is a great man, a good friend of mine. he might have his opinions and they might be different. we have subpoena power if we need it. i've been told that former director comey is willing to come before us. we've got to figure out in what venue, stephanie, he's going to come. is it going to be in an open meeting? that would be great, the public can see and hear as much as he can say, and then go into a closed classified, which basically allows us to get into a more serious discussion. and i've always said, intel will present the facts as they gather, and then the facts basically should take you where the truth is. that's what we've got to do. >> you've said the president needs to patch things up with the intelligence community. realistically, patch

the jason chaffetz asked for all the comey memos talked in the "new york times" today. he took meticulous memos allegedly of every meeting with the president. what other people did he take memos about? director muller took ha hand-written notes at ashcraft's hospital bed, but he didn't keep daily logs of his interaction with the president. that is creepy. like jay edgar hoover. there's going to be a lot of intensification of focus on it in the peeks weeks ahead. we cannot jump from a "new york times" story that was dictated by a friend of comey's to a "new york times" reporter to impeachment or crisis. we have to get the memos. if there are white house tapes -- by the way, ben sasse wants the tapes, as well -- look at every one. this doesn't stop with this administration. director muller was the director when loretta lynch met with bill clinton. there are lots of hand-written or personally dictated memos by direct comey that we need to get into the hands of the article i oversight authorities of the congress and let the chips fall, chris. let the chips fall. >> the most

pete, let's talk about the comey memos. the news driving the day. the white house responds privately to some of us here is essentially hey why wouldn't james comey have gone public about this in february if the president was asking him to shut down an investigation. any response to that from fbi sources? >> well not in the fbi and not from comey himself but from the people that he's been talking to that he told about at the time of the conversation and showed some of them the memos. some of them have copies of the memos. what he said at the time to them was that he thought it was improper but that he did not want to make it public. he didn't want to tell everybody in the fbi about it. he especially didn't want the people working the investigation, whether there were any connections between the trump campaign and the russians because he didn't want it to affect them. he memorialized it, wrote a memo to himself, a memo to the file but didn't want to make it public because he didn't want to influence the investigation. >> pete williams in our washington

a memo kept by james comey. we're told he kept memos after every phone and in personal conversation -- person conversation he had with the president. this one says the president asking him to back off of the investigation of michael flynn. the white house is pushing back on that vigorously. they say it is not truthful or accurate. they say at no time would or has the president doesasked for an investigation to be shut down, but it was striking in a conversation that i had here earlier today, they did not deny the memo exists, but they say this is simply the way the president speaks. not that he was trying to shut down an investigation, but he was trying to express his personal affinity to james comey for michael flynn saying don't pile on her, and they are trying to push back the idea that james comey sat on this information saying if he had it for so long, why didn't he communicate it to the acting fbi director who testified about this last week saying tlfls here was no effort impede the investigation. was he ke

until the comey memos came out, this wasn't really about president trump. president trump now is at the center of this particular inquiry. in large measure it's because of the way he handled comey. and robert mueller, a man who loves the fbi and is committed to its reputation is the best person to find out why mr. comey kept those records and what those records really mean. >> right. because we know that mr. comey says he kept them because he was appalled or concerned with what the president was saying. il say we haven't gotten to the leaks. we have not gotten to an answer that he didn't share that information with anyone until after he was fired. >> correct. that's the big question and what do these memos look like? >> right. >> we haven't read them. we haven't heard his testimony and heard his explanations. there's more to uncover here, yes, but i think the most important point is that the person uncovering it is going to be somebody the people have confidence in, that this is not going to be slid under the rug, that this is not going to be a coverup, that

james comey memos are coming back to haunt donald trump. media reports said comey wrote a memo where the president asked him to shut down an investigation into michael flynn. flynn resigned before the meeting, after reportedly his contacts with the russian ambassadors. trump reportedly shared classified security intelligence with russia's foreign minister and ambassador. the u.s. president accused of trying to suspend the fbi investigation into his campaign ties with russia. incident reportedly took place on february 14, the day after his national security adviser resigned for failing to disclose contacts with moscow. comey -- iedly told hope you can let this go. kept adia reports comey memo of that request to stop the probe. twist, the concern that trump was trying to influence on pd probe of his election campaign ties to moscow. hours after the memos were made oversighte house committee tweeted they will get the comey memo if it exists. i will get it sooner rather than later. i have my subpoena pen ready. we ought to ask the director to co

. >>> trump versus comey. a memo by the fired fbi director claims the president urged him to drop the investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. we take you to washington live straight ahead. >>> plus jumping jack. the parent company of cordoba surging amid reports of a spinoff. ♪ >>> good morning. welcome to "worldwide exchange." i'm sara eisen. >> i'm wilfred frost. good morning to you from me as well. great to hear coldplay as we come in. >> i thought you were going to say great news cycle. means we can't sleep. >> that, too. >> one of your favorites. >> i'm booked to see them in los angeles in october. >> better than elton john. right to the markets this morning. we are starting to see a reaction to what is happening in washington. we're off the worst levels of the session, but check out dow futures, pointing to a lower open by 95 points. about an hour ago that was more than a triple digit decline. saw that action overnight. s&p futures down 13. nasdaq down 22. also saw a reaction in the u

memo. i'm sure james comey wrote memos. it was his practice and how he rolled. it is also good practice in washington especially when you are dealing with somebody like president trump to send out emails and record for -- with others this just happened, fyi. i doubt that comey took trump seriously. i highly -- perhaps he should have given the fact that trump would fire him over this stuff but he probably at the time said probably explained to the president let's say that's what happened, probably explained to the president oh, i appreciate that you like general flynn and i'm sure you'd like us to go easy on him but that's not how it works. we need to see it through to the end and it may have been part of the fact and the prior reporting as for the pledge of loyalty. that all goes into what probably ends up with comey getting canned his eloquence was suggesting that these politicians now are perhaps not offering comment because they want to keep their powder dry. here is the doctor from last night. have a listen. >> nobody, not even from the white house, has come

bob mueller will do is shut it down, meaning he will take stock of everything, including james comey's memos, including what james comey has to say, and perhaps prevent him or ask him, his good friend james comey, not to go testify. he's a private citizen now so he can kind of do what he wants. evan perez, who obviously is very steeped in these things, also notes if that happens, if james comey says huh-uh, i'm not going to do it. that's another bad news sign for the white house which means that bob mueller is going to incorporate the comey memo and the comey conversation with the president into his investigation. >> if i could just add one point to that. comey almost certainly, when receiving a request to testify in front of congress, will go to his friend bob mueller and say look, what do you want me to do? what can i do that will jeopardize your investigation the least? and mueller, starting from scratch is almost certainly going to say, hold on, don't do anything, let me get my hands around this problem and then maybe we'll see if it's okay to testify. >> gloria, what do you make of this

all this from comey is coming from anonymous sources with a memo we have yet to see with no comment fromames comey. this is all pre mature. it is just a feeding frenzy of the media. i have five televisions in my office. this is wall to wall coverage. there are lots of other things going on in the country. this is stopping president from moving ahead with the agenda he ran on and the american people elected him for. fixing health care, lowering taxes, putting americans back to work, securing our border. it is making america great again. instead you've got pretty much every journalist in washington out to get donald trump. if he said, oh, i like puppies the story would be donald trump hates kittens. >> to be fair, donald trump is tweeting quite a bit on all of these topics including making allegations are so far baseless, like the former president of the united states wiretapped him in trump tower even though the intelligence community said that's not true. anyway, thank you for joining us. >> still ahead, what information did president trump give russian leaders sf u.s. officials say tigh

they have denied the content of the conversations, they say that the details of the comey memo are not an accurate reflection of the conversation they had. what they want is they want to see the memo, they want to hear from comey, they want to hear more from the president. i do agree with paul ryan, that we need a responsible, sober collection of the facts here, before we can jump to any conclusi conclusions, when you have a news outlet, like "the wall street journal" that's been sympathetic. there was a piece on the opinion page talking about how this presidency is in trouble due to the crisis in confidence. saying that loose lips sink presidencies and the russia intel story is a problem for this administration, so that's where we need more accounting and more information from the white house to try and stop some of this problems that we're hearing from people that have normally been supportive of the president. i think the more information we get from the president and the administration on this would be helpful. >> an economic advisor to the trump campaign said he thinks these scand

i think the problem right now for donald trump is, jim comey is a man with a story to tell, the memo that was described in the "new york times." >> brian, you also in a former life worked at the justice department. do you have any inkling that there is more to come. >> jim comey certainly knew that all throughout this time when donald trump was calling him and inviting him to dinner and having other private conversations with him, his campaign is the subject of an ongoing investigation. the thing to do was exactly what jim comey did, which was memorialize it, add it to the file. i suspect there's probably more memos wrote this came from and i think more will come out in the hearings on capitol hill. this will bring trump's legislative agenda to a standard still and probably threaten his office. >> if the president of the united states tries to obstruct justice, if he tells you to end the investigation, you don't put a memo to file, i'm sorry, brian, that just doesn't wash, this is not the way you would conduct an investigation, if the president of the united states is doing what you s

a source close to comey tells abc news, comey wrote a memo in february the day after flynn was fired. i hope you can let this go, the president allegedly told comey. according the the source, he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. the "the new york times" who first reported the memo said it was part of a paper trail that comey wanted to leave behind as to what he called improper influence into his investigation. the times didn't view a copy of that memo. but associates of comey read it to a reporter. tonight the white house is disputing the story. saying in statement the president has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation involving general flynn. this is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and mr. comey. president trump said comey was fired because he was n competent. calling he ima showboat. this galvanized many in the fbi. the acting director coming to comey's defense last week. >> is it the accurate that rank and file no longer supported director comey. >> no sir, that's not accurate. >> reporter: but you can

we need to get comey's memo.e pieces of critical evidence that i think will show, without a doubt, wrongdoing by the president, and we need to do those. so, politically, whether there can be an impeachment will take a public outcry much like what happened on the saturday night massacre. the president at the time, nixon, refused to give the tapes that had been subpoenaed in which the courts had said, we had a right to. he fired the special prosecutor. the public outcry was so enormous that three days after the saturday night massacre, he was forced to take a u-turn. he had to hire a new special prosecutor. he agreed to turn over the tapes. and then much like what's happening now, there was a drip, drip, drip of bad evidence. he revealed that three of the tapes were missing, even though he said he was going to give them to us. and then a month after we had a hearing on those three missing tapes, we had an announcement that there was an 18-minute gap in the fourth tape. so, we have an 18-minute gap and an 18-day del

that paper trail from director comey includes a memo written by james comey on february 14th immediatelyt one on one with the president in the oval office. that memo reportedly says that

liz: senate intelligence committee leaders demand the fbi hand over the comey reported memos. house oversight chair jason chaffetz inviting james comey to testify in public next wednesday morning. the president's reaction today in how the media handled it coming up. former fbi assistant director jim kallstrom will react any moment, awaiting fbi director candidates coming outside of the white house. we'll bring you the names who is going to be there. first, to lori rothman on the floor of the new york stock exchange on the market nosedive. really heavy volume today, lowery, right? >> indeed, liz, it was scary sell-off. fortunate to note, not a panic sell-off, trading volume was just about 10% above where it normally is, 10, 12%, it's elevated but doesn't signal investors, traders are racing to get out of the u.s. stock market. you have to pin it on the latest political turmoil involving proichlt lot of traders and investors re-evaluating confidence in the president's pro economic growth plan and whether tax reform will stay on track and on time and how far out it will likely be

comey's bomb shell memo. fbi director james comey says president trump asked him to end the investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. the white house is pushing back against this truly stunning report even as it struggles with fall out for the president's chairing of intelligence with russia. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> breaking news tonight. source is telling cnn that fired fbi director james comey wrote a memo that the president asked him in february to end the probe of national security adviser michael flynn, who was fired. comey himself was dismissed by the president last week. the white house is responding to night saying quote, this is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation between the president and mr. comey, end quote. we're covering that and much more this hour with our guest including senator angus king and elijah cummings, ranking member of the house orsight c

so leaders of both parties want to get their hands on the james comey memo or memos. why did comey take such copious notes? evan perez has more. >> reporter: there are more memos to be revealed according to people close to james comey. the former fbi director known to document big moments in his tenure. an associate close to comey said the fired fbi director wrote peopleos and shared emails with those close him to about major conversation with president trump, particularly those that left him uneasy. the conversation about mike flynn left comey concern that the president was trying to stop the investigation. comey also wrote memos about other discussions with the president. congress has already asked the fbi to turn over any memos and emails that comey wrote but with the white house and president now disputes how comey describes those conversations it's going to be comey's word versus the president. one criticism already surfacing is why didn't comey say something earlier before he was fired. his friend say comey didn't want to affect the ongoing russian investigation

around president trump didn't begin with his firing of fbi director james comey but the so-called comey memohere he supposedly asked him to drop the investigation into flynn. comey became director in 2013. he gave his first in-depth interview for "60 minutes." >> i think americans should be deeply skeptical of government power. they divided power among three branches. >> with regard to privacy and civil liberties, what guarantee are you willing to give to the american people? ho the promise i've tried to rule of law and the founders, congress will be at the heart of what the fbi does the way you'd want it to be. >> does the fbi gather l electronic surveillance that is then passed to the national security agency. >> that's one of those things i don't know if i can talk about that in an open setting so i better not start to go down that road with you. >> you have said, quote, we shouldn't be doing anything that we can't explain, but these programs are top secret. the american people can't see them. and you can't explain them. >> right. we can't explain everything to everybody or the bad guys w

this is the quote in the memo according to the "new york times" when they had the meeting, and comey read parts of the memo to the reporter. i hope you see your way clear for letting this go, letting flynn go. he is a good guy, i hope you can let this go. how else does one interpret that? people interpret, well, he was trying to help out a friend, but the united states does not help out a friend that way. >> no, no. i think it's wrong to interpret that as, well, he was not really directing him, and, therefore, not impeding the investigation. i'm sorry. the president of the united states is the most powerful person in the country, and when he suggests you do something, you take that as a direction, and if there's any doubt about why the president was serious, remember, he fired him when he turned out not to be his boy, not doing what the president wanted, and he fired him. there's a lot of strength. the president talks in a soft way, but the direction and what he wants done is very, very clear. >> do republicans come reluctantly in the nixon administration? >> yes, then it broke as evi

first is to try to get the actual comey memo and not rely on people who can tell us what it said to see what it said, then perhaps talk to mr. comey. it all comes down to the person's intent. what did the president have in mind. did he actually intend to try to shut down the investigation, or was he just saying he hoped it would end. >> pete williams tonight starting us off. thanks. we want to bring in our political director, the moderator of "meet the press," chuck todd. chuck, what do you make of all of this? >> reporter: look, this is a gut check moment now for congressional republicans. they've already been taking on a lot of water politically either having to defend or deflect actions by president trump, you know, just today many republicans were not wanting to see any cameras running around capitol hill, not wanting to comment on the story you're about to report on next, which is this issue of the president sharing classified information for the russians. this raises the stakes, though, to a whole new level. this becomes this introduces the idea of obstruction of justice. if there

the fired fbi director james comey and the memo our sources say he wrote. president trump threatened comey with tapes, now comey is threatening with notes, stateme. sources tell us a memo that was penned in

. >> did he shed any light on the comey memo? >> comey -- no, no conversation about that. >> was he asked about that? >> not to directly. -- not directly. >> so, your impressions? did rod rosenstein take any responsibility for the firing of jim comey, and if not, where does the responsibility lie? >> i think, the the responsibility was that of the president. it was an executive branch decision. written within the context of it. he very much avoided giving specific answers as to circumstances around the writing of the memo, did someone help them, did some but a review it, saying that should be the province of mr. mueller's investigation. he very much totally backed away from going there. may 8 he tell you that was the point at which he knew at the art director -- he knew fbi director -- >> i missed the beginning of the opening statements and i cannot say for sure. >> is it your impression that this has crossed the threshold from counterintelligence into a criminal matter. >> he stressed this was an investigation and he is sent go b

i know there's been a call for former director comey to testify and provide those memos. do you believe that to be true, as it was written in the story originally? >> that is the great unknown. for the last several months, there's been an overwhelming number of anonymous sources that are out there. the select committee on intelligence, pushing to get facts and sources and get those individuals on talk to them. seeing the documents so we are not getting unnamed sources. fbi has been working to do the same. we want to be able to meet with comey, talk with him. we have requested mccabe to be able to present any documents comey may have had, and he notes he may have had so he can add to our investigation we will continue our investigation gathering those notes, doing interviews. the same as between three will leave the investigation be able to do it. we have three investigation going for it all three are independent of each other and all of them are checking each other. all of them should be nonpartisan. >> bret: there is frustration of white house, reported frustration about

republican senator jeff flake yesterday tweeted congress needs to see the comey memo. chair of the house republican conference, kathy mcmorris rogers tweeted of course director comey should testify. i believe open, transparent government is most effective for the people we represent. and lindsey graham wants to hear from him as well. >> if mr. comey is alleging the president did something inappropriate, open invitation to come to the committee and tell us about it. i don't want to read the memo, i want to hear it from him. >> concerns about or national security, the rule of law, the independence of our nation's highest law enforcement agencies are mounting. the country is being tested in unprecedented ways. i say to all of my colleagues in the senate history is watching. >> and then there's this. senator john mccain reportedly said the growing list of scandals hitting the trump white house are reaching watergate size and scale. mccain said that at a dinner last night. saying senator mccain's comments were meant to convey the constant revelations of events surrounding ru

memos in general. this white house official said to me, was james comey keeping memos because he was trying to write a book or because he was trying to advance an investigation? katy? >> pete, that's a really good question. i was talking to somebody, a former member of the justice department and asking them why james comey would not have come out and said, hey, listen, the president is trying to interfere if he wrote memos like this. the argument was he could have been building a case toward the president. what do you know about that memo specifically and the motivations behind keeping it? >> those people who are familiar with the memo and who talked to comey at the time say that the reason he didn't make it public is he didn't want to influence the fbi's investigation into whether any trump campaign associates were involved with the russian attempts to influence the election. he didn't want it known to people inside the fbi, he didn't want it to affect their investigation, that that's the reason he kept it to himself. now the question, of course, is you have all these requests for the memos piling up

the "new york times" said an associate of comey read part of the memo to the times reporter. meaning comey has distributed this for the purpose of getting it out. we don't know what else there is, this this is pretty bad right there. david: the other big story of the day, it involves of course a dispute between the way general mcmasters saw the meeting and the way certain sources saw that meetinger. >> reported on that meeting later. you know general mcmaster. whom do you believe snow calls the "new york times" report false. would you believe him or the sources that have quoted by the "washington post"? >> i would totally believe general mcmaster. his credibility in washington is almost unparalleled. that's that's why there was bipartisan enthusiasm for his nomination. but night he more secretary tillerson dispute the fact that there was classified information disclosed. we give classified information to the russians about isis reason any frequently. but it was off-hand, then maybe there is a few more national security concerns it wasn't preplanned and well thought out. david:

comey are, quote, not accurate. reporters trying to get information from him, a memo from the former fbi director james comey that claims the president asked him privately to stop investigating the former national security adviser michael flynn. reportedly saying, quote, i hope you can let this go. congress now dep mabding any memo along with mr. comey's testimony and the house oversight committee has just scheduled a hearing on the fbi for next wednesday as lawmakers raise concerns that president trump may have obstructed justice. may have. amid all of this, silence from the president for 22, 23 hours now except for the comments he made this afternoon a short time ago. >> you will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted but you have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight. never, ever give up. things will work out just fine. look at the way i've been treated lately. especially by the media. no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. you can't let them get you down. you can't let the critics and naysayers get

a source close to comey tells abc news the fbi director wrote himself a memo in february, the day afternn was fired, for lying about his conversations with the russian ambassador. the president allegedly told comey, according to the source, "he's a good guy, i hope you can let this go." comey didn't. >> comey's memos are especially significant because this is what he wrote in realtime. immediately following his conversations with the president. >> reporter: abc news has not seen comey's memo, neither has "the new york times." those sources did confirm its existence. tonight the white house is pushing back insisting the "times" story is not a truthful or accurate portrayal of the conversation. insisting the president has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation. some democrats on the hill say this raises serious questions of obstruction of justice, an impeachable offense. >> that is the fundamental question, is anyone, including the president of the united states, above the law? >> did you reveal classified information to the russians? >> reporter: this new controver

host: the comey memo, what do you think?tler: i saw you underlining but by that time i had the tv turned down. the thing that sent the over here, i heard george stephanopoulos over on abc. it sounded like he was in citing a crowd to write, that was the citingf his what -- in to riot. host: x:. -- next caller. caller: i do not believe the memo. obama called a one-on-one meeting with comey right after he was appointed. they had met with president trump and all of us summon -- sudden the democrats are saying it is favoritism to the republicans. i have a feeling when obama got a hold of comey it would change comey aspects of the investigation. about eight months later, sure enough, my gut instinct proved i was right. not only mine, everybody that saw the, heard the announcement that comey had a one-on-one meeting with obama. host: what about this one-on-one meeting with president trump as the comey memo outlines? caller: i don't know. all i know is that soon as had met with josh nunez met with z met with trump one-on-one and eve

memos are there? what's included in them, and what is james comey's side of the story? but it appears to be inevitable, and i wonder if you think this is true, that he will testify at some point in an open hearing, and those memos would probably be produced. >> i mean, look, there's been a lot of criticism of comey about how he handled the e-mail investigation, how he handled the trump investigation, and different speeches that he's given in the past. but few people have questioned his independence and his willingness to speak out publicly. so my guess would be if there's an opportunity for comey to independently speak out publicly, he would probably take that. if we know anything about james comey, those are two things that he tends to lean towards. >> this is a man whose public reputation was made in some of the most compelling testimony i've ever seen back in 2007 about his bedside rush to john ashcroft to sort of get him not to sign off on a program he felt was illegal. so james comey is, i think it's fair to say, pretty comfortable in these environments, wouldn't yo

the leak about the so-called comey memo saying president trump asked james comey to end the investigation into michael flynn should be a wake-up call into how far these leakers will go. no one in the media has seen the memo to verify its contents, and that is just what the leakers want. coordinate with their enablers to humiliate the president at all costs. white house press secretary sean spicer responded a short time ago during an off-camera meeting with reporters. stick of the president has been clear that the account that was published is not an accurate description of how the event occurred. >> eric: the mainstream media frothing at the mouth, throwing out words like impeachment like rabid dogs. meanwhile, acting director mccabe has testified. not once has anyone mentioned this memo until after comey gets fired. >> kat: i am interested in seeing the memo. what bothers me the most is the disingenuous way people are presenting this. representative cummings saying that the g.o.p. is slow walking this bread within an hour of this news breaking, jason chaffetz was saying i will subpoena t

reporter: what about the comey memo? senator rubio: he was limited in what he said because he said he didn't want us to come out here and tell you. so i -- look, i understand the desire of those in the justice department to ensure that no american is treated unfairly through disclosures and the like. i do also understand that congress has an important role to play both in oversight and in our constitutional authority. and that should not be impeded and hopefully there will not be conflict between the two roles and should not be. i really do have to go. reporter: was there 100% attendance in there? eporter: sir, your impression, rosenstein take any responsibility for the firing of jim comey and the memo he wrote and if not, where does the responsibility lie? >> i think obviously he stressed the responsibility of the decision for the president. it's an executive branch decision and it was an executive action. senator cassidy: his memo was written within the context of it. he very much avoided giving specific answers as to

back to the call comey memo, the warehouse did not have any new information live in the akron statement they released as this was breaking, they did have some questions they will be asking tomorrow and that is, if comey was so worried about things as he expressed in the memo, why did he not share his concerns earlier with the deputy director of the fbi, department of justice, and congress? if director comey was keeping memos on his interactions with president trump, had he also kept memos about his interactions with other officials, like hillary clinton and barack obama? >> bret: the likely hit on the testimony by the acting fbi director days ago, mccabe. >> they are saying, if you remember to last week, the intelligence committee briefing, andrew cade, deputy director, not acting director of the fbi, stated under oath he had seen no evidence to suggest that the white house was trying to interfere in any way with the russia investigation. >> bret: okay, john roberts, with a long day on the north lawn of the white house. thank you. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has

's for james comey and the alleged memo detailing private conversation with presidents, if mister comeyproficient memo take her people say he is i would like to see the memos he wrote about private meetings involved. heather: 7 the part of justice naming robert mueller as special counsel to oversee the investigation into russian interference in the 2016 election. what does this mean for the trump administration and will expose the source of these white house leaks? a member of the fbi joint terrorism task force steve rogers. thanks for coming here. a trump appointee, the person that threw me off, didn't want to happen and now it has. rob rosenstein, what did he have to do. >> i have spoken to law enforcement officers across the country, rob rosenstein was angry, upset that the president suggested he made his recommendation based on his memo to the president. there is no need for a special prosecutor, you have enough people investigating but the concern, the country with law enforcement officers, he to this really appeared to be a witch hunt where they tried to manufacture evidence. ther