devin nunez was on the transition so how do you trust devin nunez. >> this is quite the test and perhapsth the president. and some republicans are characterizing this as a case of transparency. let the american people know. but you have the republican -- the trump justice department saying it would be extraordinarily reckless to release this and by republicans who have -- like most americans and officials concerns about revealing information that really ought to be kept secret. this is become a very leaky town. so i think this is a big fight and the president has signaled he will probably -- we should not expect the president to act against you the house decision to release the memo if that is what they choose to do. >> hold that thought. taye with us. we'll be back in a little bit. >>> ahead, the daca deal dilemma. are lawmakers getting any closer to an immigration plan that could actually pass? david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congra

release of a classified memo written by staffers of the house intelligence committee and chairman devin nunez. in today's statement the bureau said, quote, as expressed during our initial review, we have grave concerns about the material omissions of fact that fund. ally impact the memo's accuracy. this mirrors complaints that democrats on the commity have had to say there is cherry picking going on in this memo. this is not a legal document. it is a memo by the staff of the committee. republicans on the house intel committee voted to release the memo. saying it shows that corruption in the fbi is, quote, worse than water gate. but democrats say the memo is a political attack that does cherry pick facts to undermine robert mueller's russia investigation. the fbi's warning comes after last night when a hot mic caught the president saying this about the memo.

the republican memo was written for the chairman of the committee devin nunez. the same man who temporarily shrank from the pot slight months after he rushed the white house to brief the president on the allegedly shocking facts he had just allegedly uncovered about the russia investigation. facts we later found out he had just gotten from the white house. the very white house he claimed he had to rush to to update them on facts they already had. it amounted to a smoke screen. democrats say that is what today's memo is really about as well. a smoke screen, an attack on the intelligence and law enforcement communities involved in the russia investigation. that brings us to tonight's other big breaking story, the number two man at the fbi, andrew mccabe is out. you probably have heard his name before because the president has repeatedly singled a handout for the criticism. the president tends to criticize a certain kind of career public servant. the ones investigating him, his team, and his campaign for possible collusion with russia and/or possible obstruction of

turning to the other big story on the memo and your reporting, betsy, in the daily beast, devin nunez won't say if he worked with the white house on the anti-fbi memo. this is a very controversial memo about these misdedes and it links to rods by targeting him. nunez made a few comments before responding, i'm not answering. quite a story you've got here betsy. walk us through white that exchange is significant. >> we released that story yesterday before the home -- the specific comment that nunez made was the chairman will not entertain this question, the question came from ron quickly quigley firsted a nunez if he worked with the white house in putting together this very controversial memo. quigley did not take that as an answer. when politicians say not that i know, it often meets that there's a lot more to the story. he said can you say with confidence none of your people talked to none of the white house's people, as quigley pressed him for a fuller answer, the chairman cut him off and said he was not going to answer that question. >> i mean honestly, sometimes my job is to use si

members of the house and chair devin nunez may have relied on questionable sources to request the fisa warrant early in the investigation. the senior administration tells "the washington post" that trump is inclined to have the memo released. apparently all the rumors are that it will shed light and help investigators come to a conclusion. >>> white house chief of staff john kelly conveyed to an attorney general during two conversations on wednesday. msnbc has not end dindependentl confirmed this report. >>> and last night jeff sessions tweeted that the republicans are only interested in obstruction. it is unclear how much of this fight we'll see on tuesday when the president delivers his first state of the union address. here's kristen welker with a preview. >> reporter: poised to address a deeply divided nation at his first state of the union address tuesday, president trump will aim to strike a tone of unity echoing the optimism from his joint address to congress last year. >> a new chapter of american greatness is now beginning. >> reporter: in a preview, one senior administration

>> yeah, and that's why any effort to devin nunez, we ought to see it as an extension of the status quo a wildcard that may stop us from getting the answers we would have gotten otherwise. nunez has done a good job of redirecting the resources and committee elsewhere for the entire year, and that's why we are waiting for robert mueller and the senate intelligence committee to get to the bottom of russia's involvement in the 2016 election, not the house committee. just as a political matter, what devin nunez and folks like him are doing in going after mueller is effectively rejecting the one political silver lining in the mueller probe for their more vulnerable republican colleagues, which is the ability to say these issues involving russia and these issues involving the president's advisers, and this is all the purview of the special counsel and we are not going to talk about it, we are going to talk about other things, taxes, infrastructure, immigration, which folks on the house decide to go after mueller and the fbi, it puts it back on the agenda for a whole lot of people in the party

is not a fashion of credibility either. >> sandra: i'm very disappointed in devin nunez and hiseadership on this because i think you miss a lot a lot of people. he said there were important reforms and legislation, which there are not, and they railroaded the amendment in the house and they shut down the filibuster in the senate. these voices for liberty were absolutely silenced. >> harris: they went on loan on this because the house speaker got up and said that it was imperative that this path in order to keep americans safe. the question is, are you keeping fewer of a state if you get a warrant? there are a whole lot of people besides rand paul on both sides of the political uncle who will say you can do both. >> kennedy: it's called the constitution. you cannot violate the fourth amendment. >> lawrence: the republicans past of the blame for this as well. the speaker would've gotten involved with this and he was never with this direction. he wasn't there. >> marie: he believes, when he hears from the intel's community, even the civil liberty folk that they can do both, they be

paul ryan is the person who is responsible for absolutely everything that devin nunez does. . >> so nbc news reports that nunez has resisted sharing the memo even with the senate intelligence committee chairman richard burr. last night on msnbc all in, ranking democratic adam shift revealed how little the house intelligence committee members care about what is actually in the document. >> what was so astounding to me about the fbi doj letter it reveals for the first time chairman nunez didn't even read the underlying materials. after making all this fuss and conspiracy, he didn't even bother to take the time to read the materials that he was cha t characterizing in this memo. the only two members who read the materials are myself and trey gowdy. bear in mind, my gowdy brought us endless conspiracy theories. none proved to be true. when i moved in the committee at the time the republicans voted to provide this flawed document to the house, i made a motion to allow the members to read the underlying materials before they voted on characterizing them in such a distorted fashion.

those decisions are made by devin nunez and not made in the interest of our investigation. >> do you have anied about what steve bannon or donald trump jr. will appear? >> i hope we get steve bannon soon. >> what are does that mean? >> in the very near future? >> days or weeks? >> i can't be specific. we will leave it for the witness to say if they come in, but it's certainly our interest and desire to have the majority to bring him in and follow-through to make sure he comes and testifies plainly. >> he also suggested in this new bombshell book that money laundering which is illegal with the russians are basically at the heart of this investigation involving donald trump as a candidate as a businessman with the russians. tell us about that. >> it's ironic because i'm discussing my concern for months now. and the fact that we are not doing what we need to do to get to the bottom of that allegation. only to be criticized by breitbart for raising this issue. now you have steve bannon doing it himself. people look at the issue of compromise. they think of a salacious video. from my poin

of a case falls apart when you add facts to it. >> so the question is, what does your chairman, devin nunezith all of this? >> my hope is he sets it aside. this is the third round of chairman nunez dedicated himself to a defense of the president. it started with his midnight run to the white house to apparently elicit information that trump was being wiretapped and of course we got that famous tweet, and that turned out not to be true, and then there were improper unmasking, and you know, i was in the interviews in which we examined that and there's zero evidence that sam powers or susan rice or anybody else improperly unmasked, and now we are on the war that chairman nunez initiated with the department of justice and the fbi all around the idea that the dossier -- which, by the way, there could be errors in the dossier, and it's a collection of information that would not pass muster with the cia or fbi, but there are still open questions in the dossier, and of course the fbi did not rely exclusively on that dossier in order to open the investigation. this is just a third installment of att

. >>> house chairman devin nunez is preparing to move past russian metaling. justice department. fox news reported in a thursday letter to deputy attorney rod rosenstein. nunez wrote to dnj and failed to produce in subpoena related to dossier. doj fbi's intran gent is part of a prodder part of behavior that can no longer be tolerated. seems the doj and fbi need to be investigating themselves. by tomorrow, january 3, the justice department must provide all records and available dates for witnesses to testify. "the washington post" reported that republican negligence committee member trey gowdy of south carolina said his heart would be broken if follows through on a corruption expose about the fbi. gowdy suggested nunez has taken some of these steps without the express blessing of house speaker paul ryan. in october, speaker ryan appeared to show frustration over the response to subpoenas about the dossier. take a listen. we have had document request with the fbi for a long time. they've been stonewalling. the fbi and justice department need to give congress the

and then of course on the other side of the capitol, we have f devin nunez, who in my view, has just been stunningly irresponsible. sometimes, it's hard to see how you can be that great an embarrassment in an institution that already has done a lot of embarrassing stuff, but this is a stretch even by the house. >> even these jokes that now they've now been confirmed to have been joke, should an agent working on the russia investigation be joking about all of this with a friend? >> as you know, bob mueller has taken those people out of those assignments and as far as i'm concerned, bob mueller once again is showing that he isly ad prosecutorer. devin nunez put together apparently this four-page memo that has been widely criticized by the ranking democrat on that committee. adam schiff. that it's, and it hasn't been made public. justice department, led by a republican, jeff sessions, a former republican senator, says it would be really damaging to u.s. national security to release that memo. have you read that memo. >> no and i have made it a practice, i don't call for declassifying so

and the fbi director on exactly how they should respond and how much they should respond to what devin nunez wants to know about that dossier. >> yeah. i mean, i'm curious to see the next few days how it plays out. what nunez asked for was essentially the most confrontation and internal working documents of the mueller prosecution and if they had turned those over would have really sabotaged the investigation and nunes to give it to donald trump and give it to the people being investigated. we need to see what rosenstein and wray agreed to tonight and what's provided to understand how much damage has or hasn't been done to this investigation. you know, in the end as joyce said, it is not fire or fury to be the heart of mueller's investigation. it is facts. and there are interesting facts in the book and coming out and i think that's what we should see play out in the next few days. >> joyce, i want to go to some of steve bannon's comments in the book about the special prosecutor's investigation. he says this. this is all about money landering. mueller chose weissman first. their path to trum

this to me seems to be one in another of the pattern by devin nunez to try and undermine the mueller investigation. it kind of again sort of premises on three areas that are just dead wrong. one, the idea that the fbi is some kind of political organ that does things based on politics. i've worked with hundreds of fbi agents, they are all extremely professional, they are -- they know what they're doing. i couldn't tell you what the political leanings of any of these people were when i worked with them. this idea that there is some sort of political arm is ridiculous. second -- secondly here, the whole idea that the fbi is some all-powerful organization that do anything they want is equally absurd. fbi is simply the investigative arm of the department of justice. they do not make decisions as to who is charged, they don't make decisions as to the scope of the charges, all of this is done by the d.o.j. lawyers who present evidence to a federal grand jury and work with the grand jury and recommend the charges to be brought. and thirdly, if you look at what is really underlying all of thi

try to explain what you think is going on with devin nunez. a lot of people are asking why wasn't he recused from the russia investigation. i think the answer is the ethics committee cleared him of any impropriety regarding that unmasking diversion, but is he now front and center and pushed his colleague over to the side? >> the chronology is march 20th we had an open hearing to kick off the investigation with james comey. comey announces at that hearing there's an ongoing investigation of the trump campaign and its contacts with russia. the white house viewed that as a disaster. the committee of republicans viewed it as a disaster. the next day the chairman went on the midnight run and would later go back to the white house and present what he claimed was classified information showing corruption of the obama administration on unmasking. he got that information from the white house and it didn't support any of the claims he was making. but from that point on this has been his mission, protect the white house, throw up distractions, because it

>> because the congressional reporters don't like the way devin nunez is handling things. if paul ryan didn't like the way he was handling the investigation, he can remove him. same for trey gowdy, chuck grassley, chairman of the senate judiciary committee, they are doing many of the things the prosecutors are, but in more transparent ways. they are less then than transparent ways. this does not end with bob mueller interviewing the president. last week he said he has the absolute right, quote/unquote, to do what i want to do with the justice department. and adam schiff says, you can do what you want with your golf course, but the country and the justice department belong to the american people. you have a different take. >> in a way they're both right. the president is right. he says people are allowed to do whatever they want on this somehow. >> you are not the first person to come on the show to say he's perfect. nowhere in as much ration to investigate or not investigate every month. but there's a long-standing norm to prevent republicans from doing that. this is a pre

it's not really fair and it's not what should be done. >> there was a letter written to devin nunez,he intelligence committee. let me read a paragraph of this letter. here's the paragraph. in addition, we have also heard that the house special committee on intelligence is considering making the classified memorandum available to the public and the media an unprecedented action. the assistant attorney general writes, we believe it would be reckless for the committee to disclose such information publicly without giving the department and the fbi the opportunity to review the memorandum and to advise the house select committee on a risk to harm to security and ongoing investigations that could come from public release. indeed, we do not understand why the committee would possibly seek to disclose classified and law enforcement sensitive information without first consulting with the relevant members of the intelligence community. clearly the justice department is afraid that sensitive, classified information including sources and methods could be undermined. have you ever seen the house

it's more complicated, because there's more information behind the devin nunez report. but the house members who have looked at it and have looked at the underlying material say that it simply does not align with the actual classified material that it purports to summarize. >> christopher steele, not just a researcher, a former british spy who was highly regarded by the fbi, the u.s. law enforcement, and u.s. intelligence community. >> relied on frequently by the law enforcement community for his expertise, way before the dossier appeared. >> that's correct. senator whitehouse, thanks so much for joining us. >>> let's bring in secnn's seni legal analyst. thanks for joining us. >> good to be here. >> let's get to that washington post report, the story that the special counsel robert mueller plans to interview the president in the coming weeks, and that mueller wants to question the president about the firings of his national security adviser michael flynn and the former fbi director james comey. what does that tell you about the focus of this investigation? >> it tells y

house intelligence committee chair devin nunez who recused himself from the russian probe over incorporaterdination with the white house and put together a classified memo. it alleges -- they won't release it so i haven't read it and neither has the justice department but the president's allies had and then they want it to be released and then when people asked, no, you can't read it but it says it proves everything. >> i'm here to tell all of america tonight that i am shocked to read exactly what has taken place. i would think that it would never happen in a country that loves free -- freedom and democracy like this country. >> what i read today in that classified briefing room is as bad as i thought it was. >> you are describing the very elements of a palace coup and after we reviewed the intelligence information today it is abundantly clear that the entire mueller investigation is a lie, built on a foundation of corruption. >> again, they're talking about a memo written by devin nunez. so i hold in my hand -- sorry -- all of this to protect the president from a russia probe that has met

devin nunez does. a four to six page document. before we get to the rest of the panel, before we get to exactly what's in that memo or we think is in that memo, let's remind ourselves what we know about the russia investigation. the president likes to say it's a hoax, but here's what we know. during the campaign, donald trump and several other campaign officials including paul manafort, met with the russian later after being promised dirt on hillary clinton. manafort worked behind the scenes to soften republican opposition to russia's occupation of the crimean peninsula in ukraine. after winning the election, jared kushner spoke with the russian ambassador about setting up a secret communication channel between the transition team and moscow. attorney general jeff sessions met with russian officials including the russian ambassador during the transition and then failed to disclose it during his confirmation hearings. mike flynn also spoke privately with the russian ambassador about sanctions, and denied it to vice president mike p

that's tray gowdy, the congressman from south carolina -- >> devin nunez. >> was getting angry at bannon for being obstructionist. so, it's a weird day. that was a weird thing that happened. >> and it was weird because devin nunez has essentially functioned as a white house staffer this this whole enterprise. that's been the chief complaint of the democrats on the committee. >> right. and i think a really note worthy aspect of all this is the fact that steve bannon actually didn't have to comply with the executive privilege request from the white house. there is nothing that they could legally do to him if he were to say, well, you know, i'm just going to do it. i'm going to testify freely. i'm going to tell them what i know and answer all the questions. the fact that he is now choosing to abide by these white house requests to narrow the scope of what he can answer is really a testament to how much he wants to stay in the white house's good graces. essie essential he is essentially still on team trump. maybe that is why mueller felt compelled to issue a subpoena to give him cover. look,

. >> reporter: republicans say the memo, compiled by house intelligence committee head, devin nunez andis staff, details alleged abuse by the fbi and justice department, that the agencies acted inappropriately when requesting surveillance warrants for members of the president's campaign team. evidence republicans say the russia investigation was tainted from the start. but democrats are dismissing the document, one calling it a brainwashing memo that picks and chooses its facts. >> this document they put together is as false, misleading, misrepresenting. >> reporter: why does the memo matter? it is another effort to discredit the russia inquiry. just as special counsel robert mueller is eyeing an interview with president trump. "the new york times" reports the document shows deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man overseeing mueller's investigation, approved an application to extend surveillance of a former trump campaign aide according to three people familiar with the memo. rosenstein tonight ignoring questions. asked whether the president has confidence in rosenstein, the whi

people like him, compare him with devin nunez who is aggressive on this saying there is corruption and bias at the fbi. but lot of republicans on the hill who are not comfortable with that. that is going to grow wider. >> garrett: julie, you heard the rather lively conversation we had among our four members of congress, two republicans, two democrats about daca could, the dreamers, seemed to me that that was just a preliminary round. this is going to get very intense and the politics of it are going to get white hot. >> absolutely. this is going to be the big issue to watch in 2018. it's so emotional. so personal for so many people. and because most lawmakers in both parties would like to have solution to this problem, republicans don't want to be the party that let a million young people who came to this country as children be deported. but they also are looking to the president for some guidance on how hard he's going to be on the markers he has lay down which say will give you daca if you give me a border wall. one thing i heard from democrats some worry let the perfect be the enemy

. >> and devin nunez has been an embarrassment to his colleagues. he was in the transition. he went to the white house with a fraudulent claim about the obama administration, national security team, and it was discredited and disproved by the ethics committee, and he is asserting himself here and challenging what a judge renewed involving an intercept that picked up collaterally a trump campaign aide, picked up talking to a man spying for russian. >> we go from the wide ban of social media and the fey most commentator on another channel is some of the most prominent. you had a front row seat for nixon. and he was not undermining the investigation. >> if he had fox news would hes? >> yeah, i would get on, work at 7:00 and now back to the today show in the morning. there was more commentary going on. it was a different pace but there is a lot of similarity here and we saw today president nixon saying one year of watergate is enough. he tried to shut it down and there was a fair amount of support. i went to phoenix for a rally, and the white house press corp was tiny. we though

. >> bannon's refusal prompted a subpoena from the republican chairman, devin nunez. schiff said this is the 50 time the republicans issued a subpoena in response to a witness refusing to answer questions at the instruction of the white house. >> new developments a week after mudslides killed 20 people. highway 101 will stay closed through at least monday. crews are working to clear mud around the clock that includes boulders and cars and even a possibility of human remains. the number of homes has neural doubled to 115 and meanwhile many of those who live in the area are going to the victim's assistance center wanting to know when the rebuilding will start. >> interested to know about the sewers and the water pipes and the gas mains and when they think they might be able to get to repairing that infrastruct e infrastructure. >> two of the utilities are facing a lawsuit. victims are blaming them for contributing to this disaster. >>> in marin county, the arraignment of a promising young actor who burglarizeded elders who trusted him. wayne friedman explains that more

. >> the four page memo drafted by republican committee chair devin nunez claims to detail potential surveillance details for the justice department and claims the investigation into a russian meddling claim. he stepped down weeks before he was set to retire. the trump administration released a long awaited list of russian politicians that have flourished during the reign of putin. the white house also announce that had president trump has decided not to approve new sanctions against russia for the election meddling. >>> officials in hawaii completed their investigation into the false missile alert from earlier this month. people in hawaii were abruptly alerted of an apparent missile attack for nearly 40 minutes. residents and visitors hampered around in confusion and fearing for their lives. it turned out to be a human mistake that caused the error. a press conference on the internal investigation is scheduled for this afternoon. >>> at the state capital, blowing the whistle on sexual harassers may get easier for workers this week, a bill seeking to give protections to employers at

again, devin nunez not wanting to share that memo. i got to see that high school picture of him wearing a white turtle neck and that is enough for me. i'm glad i got to see that. we're keeping an eye on president trump in davos. any minute now, he is going to be sitting down with australian prime minister netanyahu and we will bring it to you live. [ click, keyboard clacking ] [ keyboard clacking ] [ click, keyboard clacking ] ♪ good questions lead to good answers. our advisors can help you find both. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. yours. talk to one today and see why we're bullish on the future. afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis

. >> if devin nunez's name is at the top of that, it will be something. i want to come back to the attorney general being interviewed. bob mueller essentially gets the power of the attorney general when you get named to be special counsel. what privilege does the attorney general have? can he look at bob mueller and say that's a private conversation with the president about the comey firing or anything else, i'm not going to tell you? >> if mueller stands in the place of the judiciary when he issues a grand jury subpoena and then you have your separation of powers and that's when the executive privilege can be asserted, but it has to be asserted with respect to policy considerations between the executive and the president. i don't think that is going -- and then you have nixon which said in a criminal investigation that privilege falls. at the end of the day, if he had to go to court and request a subpoena for his testimony, he prevails. it's pretty straightforward stuff now that mueller will have the opportunity to get the testimony that he needs from fl

devin nunez is asserting himself at taking aim at the special counsel, rob urt mueller and his team.ording to the "washington post," nunez blocked and tends to subpoena more testimony from the attorney general jeff sessions and his son, donald trump jr. adam is a staff writer for the new yorker. congratulations working for the new yorker. let's talk about nunez's actions. he is the chairman of the committee and basically for all practical purposes, he removed himself from the russia investigation. >> i think you need to go back in time and look at it about a year ago when they started surfacing about the relationship between trump and russia. nunez was out there putting out that there was concern about obama administration officials unmasking the u.s. official who is were involved in these communications and suggesting that that was inappropriate. he now appears to be shifting attention towards lookinga at the fbi and whether or not their approach to the clinton e-mail investigation is appropriate. he is attacking them and obviously you see trump falling suit in his tweets which is o

the four-page document compiled by aides to house intelligence committee chair devin nunez claims that fbi officials abused the fisa to target the trump came pain last fall. the memo has been described by republicans as alarming and shacking. democrats call it misleading and a distraction to derail the mueller probe. let's bring in deputy editor dan hen gar and kim stros l and big mcgurn. so kim, you've been following the story closely. what's likely to map next week with this memo and are we ever going to see it? >> i think you see two things happening. most likely the house intelligence committee meets. they have the ability if a majority votes to declassify that memo and make it public so that everyone can finally see what's in it. >> but not immediately. >> they the can declassify it and then the president of the united states has five days in which he can object. if he does not object it goes public. if he objects, the full house would have to meet to vote to override him to declassify it. paul: and the president could see side to say to the house intelligence committee, keep out

investigation because jeff sessions recused himself, he made pretty clear it seems in a meeting with devin nunez that republican house intelligence chair who has been beating a drum about the infamous dossier and more information about what went on inside the robert mueller probe and republicans claim is anti-trump, pro hillary. here's what he said after a meeting with rosen stein. after speaking with deputy attorney general rosen stein this evening since last night, i believe the committee reached an agreement with the department of justice that will provide the committee with access to all the documents and witnesses we have requested. the committee looks forward to receiving access over the coming days. this may seem potentially like it is in the weeds on the russia investigation, but it is very, very important. this is all about republicans saying don't worry so much about this russia investigation. let's investigate the investigators. >> part of the fear here is for republicans and for people in justice department. mueller's investigation has been bottled up and hasn't leaked and yet much o

or not what the connection was between donald trump's campaign and russia, and we now know that devin nunezsidelined as the chair of that investigation of the house is back and democrats say that he is blocking some of their efforts to get answers, so what are we going to see this month with all of that? >> the other indication is he's eager to wrap up the house intelligence investigation overall, which democrats have been screaming foul about not feeling like they completed their work. it's clear to anybody watching this president, when you want to go back to your first question about sort of what year two brings in store for donald trumps, and he's still clearly consumed by the mueller investigation and the house and senate investigations that hang over his administration. as long as they go on before they are concluded this president is clearly going to be distracted by them. >> look, he's writing messages on twitter this morning that we are not going to get into about james comey and he did an interview over vacation where he says robert mueller will be fair, he opens he will be fair. i

lou: the house intelligence committee, under congressman devin nunez is moving towards publishing that four-page memo said to detail fbi and justice department abuse of fisa surveillance. fox news reporting the release could occur as early as next week. the stunning level of anti-trump vitriol within it has led republicans to stop sharing information with the fbi and the department of justice related to that memo. joining us tonight is josh blackman, associate professor at south texas college of law, legal columnist for the national review. it's good to see you. and i have to believe that you, like nearly all of us, are fairly stunned at what we're seeing come out of the justice department and the fbi. >> well, lou, thanks for having me back. these reports are actually quite troubling. there's been an unfortunate trend where many people inside the executive branch have taken up to openly resisting president trump. a few months ago the reports that a group with the consumer protection agency called the double doors army. this is a takeoff of a group in the harry potter groups, people tr

the four-page document by house intelligence committee chairman devin nunez alleges the fbi abused itsower to spy on the trump campaign. >> basically this show to me serious -- either very serious mistakes, very serious negligence or intentionally not complying with the rules as to what has to be done to begin an investigation, to have certain procedures followed. i don't want to overstate it but i think anyone who looks at this honestly will say, wait a minute, proper procedures are not followed. melissa: here now, a radio talk show host, alley second ki is the host of conservative millennial. thanks for joining us. nchtthis sets up a bit of a touh situation between the president and the doj and the fbi because if they do choose to release the memo, he has the power to stop it. >> right. melissa: i bet they want him to stop it. >> i don't think he will. melissa: no. yeah. >> it's really interesting. we have a situation where the republicanrepublicans are doingo undermine or democratic institutions than the russians should ever imagine. if the fix was in against donald trump to propel

. >> the justice department tonight releasing a letter to congress, specifically to devin nunez, allowtment to look at a memo that mr. nunez has written, the justice department warning that could be damaging to national security if he does it without doj and the justice department to review it. how strange is that warning? is there precedence for that? >> it's a strange warning. i have a rhetorical question. do you care about good government? if you care about good government you think the fbi did something wrong -- look, the fbi is awesome, they're good, but they're not perfect. if you think the fbi did something wrong, and care about good government, you give it to the fbi to fix it. if you don't want the fbi to fix it, you give it to the office of inspector general. there's also the privacy civil oversight board. you can give it to them. if you care about good government there's a bunch of avenues you can walk down to fix whatever you think what went wrong. if you care about politics and do what the folks on the house intelligence committee appear to be doing, you politicize it. >>

fuel to the flames, the house intelligence committee voted to release a classified memo written by devin nunezfbi mibs conduct to get wiretaps on the tramp campaign. but the committee reviewsed to release the democrats version of the memo. >> reporter: the president will have the white house lawyers review the memo. he now has five days to allow it to be released, redacted, or block the release. >> and you can watch president trump's first state of the union address live right here on nbc 10 starting at 9:00 tonight. and count on our team coverage live from washington, d.c., george spencer and make malaure are heading there to give you a fuel recap afterward. >> announcer: now your nbc 10 first alert weather. >> snow continues to fall across much of the area, but the combination of the borderline current temperatures and all the warmth that we've had in the days ahead of this keeping the roads warm, that's causing much of it to melt. we have some flakes outside our studio here, but the visibility's still not thatt ba. this is wilmington, the vis ability lower here but as long as we can still s

. >>> president trump inclined to allow the release of the memo spearheaded by congressman devin nunez said to allege the fbi has abused surveillance laws. a person familiar with the matter is telling cnn the move is contingent on the house intelligence committee approving declassification. that could come next week. the white house insists no decision has been made on the release. >>> conservatives have rallied around the memo, but democrats say it is republicans' latest attempt to undermine special counsel robert mueller's investigation. >> i think it is sloppy, careless, and again, i think has no grounding in fact. >> top democrat on the house judiciary committee said it was profoundly unfair that house republicans have not share the policemen oh -- the memo with the fbi and justice department, the agencies the memo claims to unmask. >>> new details from the latest cache of text messages exchanged by two fbi officials who were later removed from the russia investigation. in one newly revealed text, counter intel specialist peter strzok seems to suggest he does not think there is any

. >> reporter: republicans say the memo compiled by house intelligence committee head, devin nunez and his staff, details alleged abuse by the fbi and justice department, that the agencies acted inappropriately when requesting surveillance warrants for members of the president's campaign team. evidence republicans say the russia investigation was tainted from the start but democrats are dismissing the document, one calling it a brainwashing memo that picks and chooses its facts. >> this document they put together is as false, misleading, misrepresenting. >> reporter: why does the memo matter it is another effort to discredit the russia inquiry just as special counsel robert mueller is eyeing an interview with president trump "the new york times" reports the document shows deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, the man overseeing mueller's investigation, approved an application to extend surveillance of a former trump campaign aide according to three people familiar with the memo. rosenstein tonight ignoring questions. asked whether the president has confidence in rosenstein, the white

chairman devin nunez frustrated over the delay. letter to deputy ag, rod rosenstein, saying that the fbi and doj seem to be investigating themselves. chris stewart is here. you're not supposed to be investigating yourselves. you can't do much good if they don't give you the documents you're subpoenaing. what happens if they don't give you all or just some of what you are looking for? >> this is important issue. we are the people's house. many times we feel like doj, fbi said others, look at those cute little congressman over there and fun little investigation. let's pat them on the head to give them a popsicle, send them on their way. that is completely unacceptable. do you think the department much justice or any organization is going to be responsible if the, if they won't be responsible to the congress? and if they're not responsible to the congress, if they're not responsible to the people's house, then why in the world are we any different than vladmir putin and the way he runs his government? very important. david: even then,

legislation we're voting on today authored by the chairman of the house intelligence committee, devin nunez, contains what his supporters say is a fig leaf of reform, but in fact the legislation makes a bad problem even worse. i'm going to oppose cutting out debate on this bill. i strongly urge my fellow senators to do the same. not to kill the bill but to afford us on such a critical surveillance tool the opportunity to debate the constitutional implications and to offer amendments to improve the bill and to protect americans from every single state in this country. the majority leader has provided us no such opportunity. he doesn't want us to offer any amendments, even amendments that we know could pass for the bipartisan majority. senator lee and i are filing several amendments to approve this bill, including the u.s.a. liberty act. that's a senate companion to a bill that was reported out of the house judiciary committee in a strong and very bipartisan vote. our amendment offers a sensible compromise. it would protect national security, something that we all want to do, but it also prot

i'm one of the members of congress who will be encouraging today devin nunez to release the memo. get this memo into the public square, heads are going to roll at the filibuster and at the department of justice. i think there could be people could face criminal consequences as a result of the activities laid out in this memo. >> it turns out, it is not just republicans making this push to playing it public. russian linked twitter wkts the hashtag, release the memo. they're also in on it. a twitter tracking tool called hamilton 68, they're reporting that twitter accounts linked to russian influence operations, they've been upping the frequency with which they're promoting this hashtag. and even wikileaks is getting in on it. they're saying that wikileaks reward anyone who provides them with that memo. now, in response to all this, top democrats on the house committee adam schiff has told cnn and really a tongue in chief comment that it appears the gop majority is using the usual sbuks julian assange and wikileaks and now these russian twitter bots. so the release with the hashtag i

. >> karoun, you have reporting on this, including devin nunez, chair of the house investigation. as we all remember, had to step aside because he was accused and, in fact, i think, admitted to sharing information with the white house that he wasn't supposed to as the chairman of the investigation. so, he has been cleared. so now he's back. it sounds like he's back -- according to democrats -- with a vengeance. they think he is actually actively blocking their requests for documents, for subpoenas to interview people again, like don junior. so how is this going to work? >> well, this has been -- of the three congressional probes, this has been the one that's been the most beset by political fighting basically. nunes chose to step aside last spring when allegations came out that maybe he had broken house rules by sharing classified information. the house committee decided no, he did not break any rules. he comes back in the clear beginning last month. he's not resting back the leadership of the russia probe about from the people he has appointed to handle it. he has never reaccuse

. >> meanwhile, house intel committee chairman devin nunez announced the committee reached a deal with department about outstanding document and witness request related to involvement in the trump dossier. nunez said he spoke with rod rosenstein wednesday and expects to receive the additional documents in the coming days. >>> back with us from washington, daniel litman, coauthor of the political playbook. good to see you again. what's the appetite like for an investigation into hillary clinton and washington. how much of this is seen as sort of an effort so distract away from the russia probe. >> a lot of both democrats and moderate republicans see this as nothing new. trump and his supporters have been talking about the clinton foundation for years. nothing has been proved on that front. what you'll see is the fbi will look at this closely. tl but unless there's evidence that comes to light, quietly wind down this investigation after they've done the interviews. if they prosecute the clinton foundation, say they're using the justice department and fbi for political purposes to bury a

i know i talked to devin nunez. he is committed to making sure the committee calls its hearing. we had that five-day process. i believe that the white house will give us the thumbs up right away. if that passes the community with a majority vote, i think president trump will say let the american people see it. >> he definitely brought up what i was hearing as well. there will be a vote next week. that's what i've been told. after that, it goes to the president. i'm sure he will allow that to go public. >> sean: i hear there's a lot more even coming behind that memo. do both of you glean that? >> yes. i think there will be more memo's, sean. here's the other thing i think is important. why rod rosenstein when he testified just last month, why didn't he tell us they were missing text messages? >> sean: exactly. bring him back. does he extend that fisa warned? did he extend that? >> i can't get into who did what. i can't get into that. >> sean: my guess is he did. >> rod rosenstein came and testified it was act about the text messages. that was the day before he testified was when