director comey. director comey: i don't think i would use the term warfare. you would haven't to have experts. they engaged in a multifaceted campaign of active measures to undermine our democracy and hurt one of the candidates and hope to help one of the others. admiral rogers: i agree with the director. ms. speier: thank you both. i actually think that their engagement was an act of war. an act of hybrid warfare. that's why the american people should be concerned about it. in terms of trying to understand this, i think of a spider web middle. rantula in the the tarantula in my view is putin who is entrapping many people to do his bidding and to engage with him. and i would include those like roger stone and carter page and michael can puteo and wilbur ross and paul manaforth and rex tillerson. i would like to focus first on rex tillerson in the three minutes i have here. he was the c.e.o. of exxonmobil. in 2008 he said that the likelihood of u.s.-russia businesses was in fact a poor investment. tha

director comey: no. representative himes: director comey, i appreciate your frankness on the topic of an ongoing investigation and appreciate your inability to go too much further than you went. but i want to ask you question to clear up some confusion. this committee is engaged in an investigation about links, as you said, between the trump campaign and the russians, should there be any possible collusion. we have had statements early that there was no evidence of collusion. this is very early in our investigation. is it fair to say you are relatively early in your investigation? director comey: it is hard to say because i do not know how much longer it will take, but we have doing this -- this investigation began in late july, so that is a fairly short ime. representative himes: you used the word "coordination," which suggests whether there was coordination between u.s. persons and the russians. is it fair to assume that we should not dismiss the possibility that there was coordination or collusion bet

but a very, very intense q and a with the director of the fbi as well as the director of the national security agency. once again we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer reporting. gloria, it was pretty amazing, we heard the director of the fbi confirm for the first time a criminal investigation is now underway, and it has been underway since july into these allegations that there may have been some coordination between trump associates and the russian government. >> you know, i think if you take a step back for a minute, wolf, you would have to say this is the worst and most perilous day of donald trump's young presidency. in this hearing over the last bunch of hours we have seen the director of the fbi rebut donald trump directly. he said first of all, there was no wiretapping by the former president of trump tower. he confirmed an investigation into the question of whether there was cooperation as he put it between trump associates and the russians. he said the fact that the uk corroborated in some kind of a wiretap was wrong.

the obama cia director said so, obama's director of national intelligence said so. we take them at their word. >> the former director of national intelligence, general james clapper, his office issued a statement this afternoon saying while director clapper was not aware of evidence of collusion prior to leaving government he could not account for evidence that may have been gathered since the inauguration on january 20th. i guess the larger question is, is there definitely going to be fire? or is it just going to be a lot of smoke? isn't it possible that there will be nothing at the end of this? >> i haven't seen the statement that director clapper issued. if he said that he hasn't seen yet conclusive evidence, that's quite a different issue than whether there is evidence to be investigated. >> on sunday he said he had seen no evidence -- you know the intelligence community report that came out january 6th that was dni, director of national intelligence, cia, nsa, did not conclude collusion. >> i asked the director of the fbi about that today. was this because you

we appreciate the lengthy hearing that we had with director comey and director rogers. i think it is important to know -- the chairman feels the same way -- that we do as much of the investigation as we can in open session. lot will be that a done in close session and you got a sense of why today. nonetheless, what the public was about the concerns that many members have about the russian interference in our election, about the intelligence community, a conclusion that this was not a one-off and that againssians will do this -- it underscores how important it is to get to the bottom of what the russians did and how they did it. how their hacking operation worked. u.s. persons were involved. what was the nature of the u.s. response. how'd we better protect ourselves and our allies? whype people got a sense of members feel this is such an important investigation, as well as why it has to be conducted in a thorough way and we have to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. so i appreciate the time that the directors spent with us today and i would be happy to respond to

director comey? >> yes. harm can have many meanings, they are in adversary. they want to resist us, oppose us, and that's a many different ways. >> one of the terms that we hear often is hybrid warfare, and i would like to just give a short definition of what it is. it blends conventional warfare, irregular warfare, and cyber warfare, the aggressor intends to avoid attributions for retribution. so would you say that russia engaged in hybrid warfare in an effort to undermine our democratic process and engage in our electoral process? director comey? >> i do not think i would use the term warfare, i think you would want to ask experts in the definition of war, they engaged in a multifaceted campaign of active measures to undermine our democracy and hurts one of the candidates and hope to help one of the other ones. >> i would agree with the director. >> all right, thank you both. i think that their engagement was an act of war. an act of hybrid warfare. i think that is why the american people should be

and nsa director mike rogers.e talk to representatives adam schiff and peter king of the house intelligence committee. ♪ charlie: we begin this evening with the house intelligence committee first public hearing on russian interference in the presidential election. fbi director james comey confirmed there is an ongoing investigation into russia's meddling, including possible collusion between president trump's campaign and russian officials. director comey also testified is no evidence support the president's claims that former president obama wiretapped him. lawmakers also heard from nsa director mike rogers. he rejected white house secretary sean spicer's allegations that the british intelligence agency conducted surveillance of president trump. >> i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. that includes investigating the nature of any link

who better than directors to talk about directors?"e search for five directors to speak. it was great. we had a very short list. everybody organically was available. it worked out. charlie: what were they charged with? laurent: they were charged with being interviewed in the same way you are interviewing me right now. they had to come in with a lot of knowledge. they had already book -- they had all read the book, even before we approached them. they also did a lot of research. mark wrote scripts for each of the episodes that would highlight -- if steven spielberg came in to talk about william wyler, all the things that pertain to him. they were so familiar with the movies, so familiar with their lives. steven spielberg new william wyler. they came in with their own information. charlie: but your challenge was to connect them all. laurent: yes. it was really well done in the book. not only to connect them, but to make sure that on the one hand we had this epic story of world war ii, and on the other side we have those very five, very s

director comey: yes. representative gowdy: did you read president obama -- i would just ask you -- did you brief president obama on any calls involving michael flynn? director comey: i am not going to get into that matter or any conversations i had with the president. i cannot answer that. directorative gowdy: comey, there has been some speculation this morning on motive i'm not interested in motive. it is hard to prove. secondarily, you never have to prove it. i get it that people want to know. the jury always wants to know why. you and i can agree to our a couple reasons why you would not have to disseminate classified material. it was not done to help an ongoing criminal investigation because you already have or -- had the information? director comey: i cannot answer. representative gowdy: how about in theory? is there something a reporter would have access to that the head of the fbi would not? director comey: i would hope not. representative gowdy: i would hope not it is part of our surveillance prog

fbi director, james comey and nsa director rogers go before the house intelligence committee. the first of three focused on russia, trump, the election and allegations of wiretapping. then coming your way at 11:00 eastern, the senate judiciary committee kicks off a hearing for neil gorsuch. that is expected to last for the better part of the week. we have a great panel to break this down for you. first, let's bring in peter alexander from the white house. good morning to you, peter. huge day for the president. tell us about it. >> reporter: you are right. not just a huge day, but a day of reckoning as for the wiretapping claim. a consequential week, perhaps the most consequential for the trump presidency so far. rogers, the head of the nsa and james comey both testifying today. will there be rez laugs? comey certainly to be asked if he can, once and for all state that president trump has no evidence that president obama ordered wiretapping of trump tower during the campaign. they are trying to frame the conversation over the course of the day. here is some of what he said on t

comey, are you aware whether or not the director of national intelligence, director clapper, ever briefed the president of the united states, then president obama, concerning the possible inadvertent or incidental collection or interception by the u.s. intelligence community of any communication of members of the incoming trump administration? >> that's not something i can comment on. >> then why not, mr. comey? >> a couple of reasons. it might involve classified information. it might involve communications with the president of the united states. on both of those grounds, i can't talk about it here. >> mr. comey, have you previously discussed your conversations with president obama with this committee? >> i don't remember. it may have with the chair and ranking. i don't remember with the full committee. >> we'll have to refresh your memory on those conversations then. mr. comey, did president obama ever acknowledge to you of having been briefed concerning possibly inadvertent or incidental collection or interception by the intelligence community by any members of the incoming trump admin

the fbi director said that today. he also said there are many stories that are not true. >> former president of wiretapping him. what do you say about that. >> what do you say? your constituents must ask you, right? >> you heard the answers today. i think the answers were certainly clear. as of defending this tweet, talk to donald trump himself. >> don't you want to say something? he's going to keep tweeting. he was tweeting this afternoon. >> there certainly is. there clearly was chatter of information about communications that were happening in the trump campaign that have been leaked to the wnts and "the new york time times". >> he says tapping. >> that is not to the level of what the president is saying. even though we all know that this chatter and this communications was happening, the president needs to explain. >> this does hang over washington and the administration. we've got health care, possible tax reform. we've got immigration reform perhaps. we've got so much going on in this country. infrastructure and

that's from director clapper, the director of national intelligence. he said he was only speaking up to january 20th. that was already six months into the investigation. something may turn up. if it does, it does. if anyone is guilty they should be prosecuted. but i am saying, up until now, there is no evidence i am aware of. and director clapper says, as far as he knows, up until january 20th there is no evidence. >> the circumstantial evidence that adam schiff referred to. you don't accept any of that? >> it's circumstantial. in almost any campaign you'll find people involved in business in russia. i was in moscow with president clinton in 1998 when he was meeting with president yeltsin. we were encouraging american business to go over there. that was part of american policy, american government policy. and throughout the bush administration, throughout the clinton administration and certainly the obama administration. wolf, i would point out that, if we're going to make charges, probably no president did more to help putin and russia than president

the obama cia director said so, obama's director of national intelligence said so and we take them at their word. however, there was some new information that came from the hearing that we believe is newsworthy about the intelligence gathering process. and the unmasking of americans identifying in intelligence reports. and illegal leak of such unmasked individuals which is a federal crime. director comey told the house intelligence committee that certain political appointees in the obama administration had access to the names of unmasked u.s. citizens such as senior white house officials, senior department of justice officials and senior intelligence officials. before president obama left office, michael flynn was unmasked and then illegally his identity was leaked out to media outlets despite the fact that as nsa director rogers said that unmasking and revealing individuals endangers, quote, national security. not only was general flynn identity made available, director comey refused to answer the question whether or not he would actually briefed president obama on his phone calls an

the director of the fbi, publ publicly contradicting president trump. how does this affect the president going forward with his agenda? >> reporter: well, having the fbi director directly contradicting the president and also investigating the president's campaign will undoubtedly be a source of tension and distraction. a source of tension that will be there as long as jim comey is the director of the fbi. >> late word tonight of another trump working in the west wing? >> reporter: that is right. we have a situation where ivanka trump, according to her attorney, will be having an office in the west wing, government issued communications devices and a security clearance so she can receive classified information. we are told that the president's daughter won't have a former role or salary, but clearly a bigger role in the west wing. >> alongside her father. thanks so much. >>> to another high stakes hearing on capitol hill. this for that supreme court spot that has been vacant for more than a year. neil gorsuch getting a warm welcome after a remark. he fac

lawmakers heard from nsa director mike rogers. he directed white house press secretary sean pieser investigation into the british intelligence agency gcsq conducted surveillance of president trump. >> have i been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian mpaign and russia's efforts.he with respect to the president's tweets about alleged wiretapping directed at him by the prior administration, have i no information that supports those tweets. >> did you ever request that your counterparts in gchq should wiretap mr. trump on behalf of president obama. >> no sir, nor would i. that would be expressly against the construct of the agreement that has been in place for decades. >> rose: joining me from washington adam schiff of california, the house intelligence committee's ranking democrat and representative peter king of new york who also serves on the committee. i'm pleased to have both of them on this program. i begin with you, congressman sc

. >> director mulvaney addressed that. couple of things. the senate dragged its feet on getting director mulvaney confirmed and in office. so we were behind the curve on having a director of omb. we got in and produced a blue print. but he's made it clear that we'll have a budget probably sometime in may that we'll outline the more specifics of the revenue piece, the entitlement piece and the full details of all of this. but that's eliminating a $20 trillion debt and tackling the current deficit is something that will take a little bit of time. it's something the president is committed to reducing. i thk we talked extensively about the pside's commitment to protecting taxpayer dollars and using them more efficiently. this budget, and a lot of the action the president has took on other projects including the f-18, the next generation of air force one, show the president is committed on a very, very personal basis to getting involved in programs and policies to reduce the deficit in respect taxpayer money. this is step down. it's a down payme

director comey, you're a good lawyer. can you make out a great case that president obama wiretapped mr. trump's phones just prior to the election in light of the fact you have said there is no evidence of that? >> all i can say is what i said before, that we don't have any information that supports those tweets. >> well, in my view, then, you would not be a great but a very unethical to make out such a case. finally, the president made the following accusation. how low is president obama gone to tap my phones during the very sacred election process? this is nixon/watergate, bad or sick guy. director comey, the president has compared mr. obama to nixon and purported wiretap of trump phones as another watergate. what was the gravamen of the offense by nixon and his operatives during watergate? a lot of people who may be watching may be too young to understand what watergate was about. what was the gravamen of that offense? >> well, as i recall, i was a kid, but i've studied it quite a bit in school, the gravamen of it was a

director comey? >> on sechen?>> well, just in general. >> again you'd have to ask an expert but from my general knowledge it's to punish activities that are criminal in nature, that involve war crimes. that involve violations of u.n. resolutions, or united states law in some other way. it is to communicate and enforce foreign policy interests and values of the united states of america. that is my general sense. but an expert might describe it much better. >> admiral rogers. >> i would echo the director's comments. it is also a tool we attempt to drive and shape choices and actions of other. >> so in the case of igor sechen who was sanctioned by the united states in part to draw attention to the fact that russia had had invaded crimea, it is an effort to try to send a strong message to russia, is that not true? >> i think that's right. >> yes, ma'am. of the. >> with that, mr. chairman, i will yield back for now. >> gentleman yields back. i yield myself 15 minutes. yield to the gentlelady florida, miss ros-lehtinen.

the obama cia director said so, obama's director of national intelligence said so, and we take them at their word. >> nothing has changed, really? >> i think a lot has changed. >> this was extraordinary to have the fbi director confirming publicly and on going counter intelligence investigation about whether the campaign of the sitting president was involved in coordination or kwlugs with a foreign power. now, among the many amazing revelations from comey today, is that this investigation was actually launched in late july. shortly after the republican convention ended, more than three months before election day. and none of that was known to the public. now, one can understand the fbi does not normally disclose sunshine investigations, but the fact that it was going on during the campaign is pretty stunning. >> right. >> also, i want to make one other point, comey only publicly said this, because he got clearance from the justice department to say it, the guy at the justice dement who gave him the green light was the acting deputy attorney general, he is an obama holdover, that's only

director.teresting because we heard a lot about comey and what he think and famously after the trump tweet another leak he privatelied asked the justice -- privately asked the justice department to refute the allegation of wiretapping at trump tower but it's the first time we'll hear from him since testifying from hearings in the fall about the clinton e-mail scandal. this is very unusual that an fbi director take such a public role and it goes back to july 5 of last year when he famously held the news conference to say while he felt hillary clinton had been extremely careless in her handling of classified material in her private e-mail server he did not believe there was the basis or grounds to prosecute her. from that we got the hearings in the fall and eight days before the election when he put out the statement he was re-opening the investigation because they had found some material, e-mails on anthony wiener server and it's unusual for an fbi director to such a public fbi director. >> bret

for which director? >> it's a great question. we wanted to find sensibilities or traits comparable to the five original directors from the past. spielberg we knew for year and i was always impressed with his humanity and his own roots being jewish and we felt adam wiler was similar in spirit and steven spielberg talks about being a young director meeting a legendary director and saying i was so impressed with whiler and how kind he was and i thought perfect casting. franci francis coppola and he had done a press conference at a festival and said making the film was like a war and i thought a set echoed john houston and this fiery personality. paul greengrass comes the documentary world and identified with john ford in a way that was very personal benicio del toro is an immigrant and his movies are emotional and he connected with him and the last one is moan for movies like the big heat and before that was famous or being a screenwriterer b screenwriter and it was important we had a director famous for hi

thank you, director. director, are you familiar with a 2004 home purchase by president trump in palm beach county for about $40 million? >> not going to comment on that. >> are you familiar with a 2008 sale of that same property for 129% increase at about $98 million? >> same answer. >> are you aware that the buyer in 2008 was a russian businessman? >> same answer. >> and under the earlier hypothetical, would a foreign adversary's oligarch purchasing a home in the united states for 129% more than the home was purchased four years before, would that be a tool that a foreign adversary would use to try to recruit, develop or bring somebody on to their side? >> same answer as before. >> you said that it's likely or somebody should assume they're being surveilled when they were in russia. would you assume that donald trump was being surveilled in 2013 when he was in moscow? >> i'm not going to answer. i was trying to confine my answer to prominent people should assume, not students and all those people who mig

let's take a look at screen lab, fbi director james comey and nsa director mike rogers testifying for the first time about russian interference in the u.s. presidential election, was there any? screen write, hearing sticking up for neil gorsuch, president trump's nominee for the supreme court. this is tillerson, i am harris faulkner. today, meghan mccain, host of "kennedy," kennedy herself and also from fox business network, melissa francis and today's one lucky guy, sitting member of congress from the great state of wisconsin, republican, rissman sean duffy. he is outnumbered. i like it comedy like it? >> what an exciting day. >> we have spent some quality hours together already. >> more exciting than the villanova game. >> wisconsin, great game. >> on the edge of our seats for that one peered my bracket bro, let's move on. >> hopefully you did not pick villanova. >> are not alone and that, am i? let's go with fbi director james comey peered under oath for the first time on his agency's investigation into russia's involvement potentially in the presidential election. right from the g

brinkman director borden is anticipated director hsu director nolan director ramos director rubke directors be advised director heinecke will not be here please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones, please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person(s) responsible for the ringing or use of a applying cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. at the cause visitation trufrngs turn them off for the approval of the minutes for the regular meeting of second any public comment on the minutes no seeing none. > all in favor, say i. > opposed? the minutes are approved the directors be please be advi

react to director comey.asked about the timing, the timing of this investigation, the release of all of this. >> this is still very early in our investiation. is it fair to say that you're still relatively early your investigation? >> it's hard to say because i don't know how much longer it will take, but we've been doing this investigation -- this investigation began in late july so for a counterintelligence investigation, that's a fairly short period of time. >> a lot of people are wondering, it began in late july. but only now we heard there is a formal criminal investigation underway. there was word released during the campaign that the fbi investigation of hillary clinton are going on and people are saying, you know what, they released the hillary clinton investigation information, why not the trump campaign investigation? >> well, and that's the question that democrats are clearly asking. and i think comey only announced it today because he was up against the wall and because it's become such a matter o

. >> director brinkman director borden director heinicke is anticipated director hsu director nolan director ramos is anticipated director rubke madam chair we have quorum. >> thank you item 3 please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones, phones, please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room meeting room meeting room responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. >> item 4 approval of the minutes for march 7, 2017, regular meeting minutes. >> do i have my any public comment on the minutes. >> i'm sorry in or a make public comment. >> it is announcing any comments on the previous meeting do i have a motion >> all in favor, say i. >> i. >> opposed? nope hearing approval of the minutes and directors i know item 6 introduction of new or unfinished business by board members. >> i do have one thing i'd like to i promised to put this on at the next board meeting i'm going to go ahead and put it in and acknowledge all the work that the staff of 3 agencies have done for the transportation sustai

director couldn't possibly answer. ask the question for the purpose of getting the premise of the questions, the allegations or the claims into the record. they did that again and again. the ranking member, mr. schiff, dragged out the idea that there was a softening of a plank inimical to russia. the reporting is that during the republican convention, that link and the platform was toughened but there is still working on that idea anyway. it's at peace with the hearings i've covered over the years. >> bret: seems like representative schiff and representative gowdy were the respective point people. what about the fact that this has been a definitive, conclusive answer on the wiretap tweaked both from the fbi director and the director of the nsa and yet the white house says it's not all finished yet. >> well, what we have here is another instance where there is no evidence to support the allegation that the president made that president obama had him wiretapped or surveilled. as long as that's the case, i think it's a co

nothing official coming from the fbi director or the nsa director, but certainly lot of insinuations being made. >> dana: i remember back in the day when i was at the podium. on a tough day, i'd look around the room for somebody to ask me about the international monetary fund. >> reporter: exactly. you look for the foiler out there in the crowd. that's what they're doing with this information. >> dana: for more on this let's bring back in juan williams and chris starwald. chris, i thought of a saying for you. i feel like the reporters in washington are like a raccoon in a room full of disco balls. they don't know where to look. what is a headline that you lead with tomorrow if you're the editor of the paper? >> i think the headline is you should leave the hillbilly to me. no. in this case, here's a headline for you. both major party nominees in 2016 were under criminal investigation prior to the election. so congratulations, america. you did it. look, that's stark. the reality here that is inescapable is that sometime in the next six weeks or five weeks, we're probably gonna get to a

but clearly not that to the fbi director. >> were you engaged in mccarthyism, director comey? >> i try very hard not to engage in isms of any kind, including mccarthyism. >> reporter: today's hearing one of the early acts in a drama likely to unfold for months. i'm david wright for "nightline," in new york. ♪ >>> up next, the president's harsh accusation not just against former president obama, but also foreign governments. is all of this hurting our country's standing on the world stage? ♪ ♪ does psoriasis ever get in the way of a touching moment? if you have moderate to severe psoriasis, you can embrace the chance of completely clear skin with taltz. taltz is proven to give you a chance at completely clear skin. with taltz, up to 90% of patients had a significant improvement of their psoriasis plaques. in fact, 4 out of 10 even achieved completely clear skin. do not use if you are allergic to taltz. before starting you should be checked for tuberculosis. taltz may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you are being treated

item five is executive director's report. >> good morning, directors. as you recall, from previous updates, the new members of the san francisco county transportation commission asked for permission on the prop k allegation request was considered at the january fourth meeting, since then we have worked with the staff to provide the briefings for each of the four new commissioners it was continued to the february, 28leth meeting given the recent delay of the federal funds for the cal train, the chair has indicated that he would like the prop k, allocation to be considered on the march first, meeting along with the up date on cal train electric identification. in addition, as a result of the input that we received from the staff we have revised our prop k allocation to exclude the engineering work for a portion of the work on faldon street, the revised request is a two part request. part one 30 percent engineering for the portion of the alignment that is xhon to all alternatives under consideration by the study which includes, work along the second street

that is why what started out as an investigation and invitation to the fbi director and the nsa director to come and testify and perhaps to try to get things out of him in a way that would be difficult has now turned into an unbelievable, showstopping event where you're going to have the fbi director forced to and, frankly as you have been reporting, eager to say that the president of the united states was wrong. and so, yes, the president was successful in the distraction. but clearly this distraction has taken on a life of its own that's caused problems. >> 60 days into a new administration. you're supposed to vote on the signature health care bill. we would be talking about the beginning of the supreme court hearings today. we will talk about that. but it's not the dominant story in washington. a president who has been under water from the beginning, has an historically low 37% approval rate nth gallup poll. knowing that they assume the fbi director is going to say the president is winging it, how embarrassing is that to the president of the united states, having his own fbi director

director mulvaney: to clarify, it is not a balanced budget. there is $480 billion deficit according to the congressional budget office next yr. we did not add to that in order to spend money on the president's priorities. regarding moving projects out of the, say, the base budgets for into the of and the structure, infrastructure is what we recently started. it will probably not come until summer or early fall. than taxo do obamacare reforms and then infrastructure after the august recess in congress, so you're making an assumption that i am not willing to make. you are making an assumption that all the infrastructure will go to the deficit and i am not willing to make that assumption. yes, sir. one, robust funding for security [indiscernible] will be anean there increase considering all the criticism that the president and alleged against president obama for supposedly cutting embassy security? director mulvaney: that is one of the line items we leave up to secretary tillerson. we talked about the state apartment budget and how he decides to

director hsu director nolan director ramos director rubke directors be advised director heinecke will not be here please be advised the ringing of and use of cell phones, please be advised that the chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person(s) responsible for the ringing or use of a applying cell phone, pager, or other similar sound-producing electronic devices. at the cause visitation trufrngs turn them off for the approval of the minutes for the regular meeting of second any public comment on the minutes no seeing none. > all in favor, say i. > opposed? the minutes are approved the directors be please be advised it's been removed at the request of staff item 6 unfinished business by board members. directors. >> anything under new and unfinished director ramos. >> i have a quick show-and-tell we have a light agenda this was one of the noticed i found on one the transit lines i was on in now time away in melbourne they hung those there the rails you'll hold on in my capability i thought that was a wonderful way to communicate service changes and information to the

he was the director of national intelligence, but i'm not talking about the particular. >> would director brennan have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> in some circumstances, yes. >> would national security adviser susan rice have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> yes, in general, and any other national security adviser would, i think, as a matter of their ordinary course of their business. >> would former white house adviser ben rhodes have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> i don't know the answer to that. >> would former attorney general loretta lynch have access to an unmasked u.s. citizen's name? >> in general, yes, as would any attorney general. >> so, that would also include acting a.g. sally yates? >> same answer. >> did you brief president obama on -- i'll just ask you -- did you brief president obama on any calls involving michael flynn? >> i'm not going to get into either that particular case, that matter, or any conversations i had with the president, so i can't answer that. >> director comey, there's been some speculation this morning on mo

director comey? >> on sechin? >> just in general. >> again you'd have to ask an expert but from my general knowledge it's to punish activities that are criminal in nature, that involve war crimes, that involve violations of u.n. resolutions, or united states law in some other way. it's to communicate and enforce foreign policy interests and values of the united states of america. that's my general sense. but an expert might describe it much better. >> admiral rogers? >> i would echo the director's comments. it's also a tool that we use to attempt to drive and shape the choices and actions of others. >> so in the case of igor sechin who was sanctioned by the united states in part to draw attention to the fact that russia had invaded crimea, it's an effort to try and send a very strong message to russia. is that not true? >> i think that's right. >> yes, ma'am. >> all right. with that, mr. chairman i'll yield back for now. >> the gentleman yields back. i yield myself 15 minutes and i yield to the gentle lady from mr

when you have the director one of those agencies say this is not happen it put a huge? over the president's tweet. i cover president trump during the primary and election, he is very active on twitter. it reduced quite a bit since he began the transition and after the inauguration. i kind of think there has to be some evidence for him to say there was a wiretap of trump tower. however, the call me statement does paint a huge?. that's the biggest intelligence agency that did not petition the court. >> eric: as the new york times have you heard anything from the department of justice to push back with the president's claim? >> i've not heard anything from the doj. it does not seem that the white house is making any comments either. i think they have called for congress to investigate. it should should be investigated and should roll into a bigger investigation of whether the trump campaign wasn't medication with the russian officials. >> eric: what you make of this? the fbi versus the president. >> the fbi would've been the ones conducting an investigation. it it would've

join the discussion. >>> fbi director james comey and nsa director michael rogers testified at a hearing on russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. director comey addressed accusations made via tweets by president trump that president obama wiretapped his new york city trump tower. this house select intelligence committee hearing is chaired by congressman devin nunes of california. >>> the committee will come to order. i would like to welcome our witnesses, director of the fbi, jim comey, and the director of the national security agency, admiral rogers. thank you for being here today. i would like to remind that this is an open meeting. i understand the discussion of sensitive securities in public. however it is critical to ensure that the public has access to credible, unclassified facts and to clear the air regarding unsubstantiated media reports. to our guests in the audience, welcome, we appreciate you being here. i also expect that the proper decorum will be observed at all times and the disruptions will not be tolerated. i now will recognize myself for five minutes

a president can get rid of an fbi director. it happened to the fbi director before bob muller. he was actually ushered out the door after there were allegations he was using federal fund to make some improvements at his house. i think it would be extraordinary for any nuchlt to move an fbi director for anything less than obvious misconduct on the job. >> to our viewers just joining you, top of the 10 a.m. hour, we've just seen fbi director comey come down the hallway. this is the time when we were supposed to be gavelled into order. as far as we can tell, not all the members are in the room as of yet. we saw a brief scurry when the press corps thought comey was coming in the back door. we will eventually see him here and there will be no shortage of pictures still and video of director comey. nicole wallace, his reputation in washington. >> so interesting, i asked republicans this morning if trump isn't happy with what he hearse today, does he have any recourse, to pete williams' point. and he said no, this president is stuck with comey basically. there's no case to be made tha

in that context, this is an ex-extraordina extraordinary rebuke. >> how far did the director go? >> he acknowledged for the first time that the february's investigati -- fbi's investigate egg possibing coordination between the russian government and the trump administration. carter page visited moscow to give a speech. that visit has been under scrutiny by the fbi. page claims he went as a private citizen and did nothing wrong. the fbi is looking into repeated contacts between paul manafort and the russians and michael flynn's contacts. investigators are trying to determine whether they unwittingly or wittingly worked with russians in some capacity to try to influence the election. of course they've all strongly denied any wrongdoing, anderson. >> both republicans and democrats on the committee today focussed on different topics. >> yeah, it was certainly a partisan hearing, with democrats focussing on collusion with russians and the trump campaign. and the republicans focussing on whether it was a crime regarding michael flynn. so both side of the aisle had their own agendas tod

on march 15th former acting director of cia who was acting director under president obama and put on the record i've had differences with in the past, he was asked about the question of the trump campaign conspireing with the russians. his answer was there is smoke, but there is no fire at all. there's no little campfire. there's no little candle. there's no spark. do you agree? >> i can't comment, mr. king. >> admiral rogers? >> i'm not going to comment on an ongoing investigation. >> that was my way of getting it on the record. i appreciate that. you were talking about the significance of leaks and how important it is we stop them, and to me and i've been here a while, i've never seen such a sustained period of leaks going back to december when not the intelligence committee but "the washington post" was told a conclusion of the report. that's number one. what it was going to be. situations in "the new york times" where they talk of meetings. they talk of transcripts. they talk about conversations. there was one in particular we spoke about trump campaign individuals meeting with r

director comey: yes. there are other important elements of it, but that is the primary goal, i believe. >> it was not an afterthought or accident. these are intentional safeguards we put in place to protect u.s. citizens. director comey: correct. >> you agree much of what is learned from these programs is classified or otherwise legally protected? director comey: all fisa applications reviewed by the court, collection by us is classified. >> the dissemination of which is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison? director comey: the unauthorized dissemination. >> unauthorized dissemination of classified or otherwise legally protected material punishable by a felony of to 10 years in federal prison. director comey: yes, as it shou. . in january of this year, the washington post reported according to a senior u.s. government official, a named u.s. citizen and i will not use phoned a russian ambassador several times on december 29. in february of this year, the washington post reported nine current and

thank you, director. at this time, i'm going to yield to mr. rooney who chairs our nsa cybercommittee for questions. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i'd like to direct my questions first and foremost to admiral rogers to convey my thanks to the many men and women for their dedication at the nsa, for keeping our country safe, as well as i want to talk about the recent media stories that may have led to confusion in the public about what the nsa is and is not legally collecting in the safeguards of the nsa has put into place to protect personal data. i would like to clarify as the chairman of the subcommittee on the nsa recently got to meet your deputy admiral last week out at the nsa and we visited and spoke to some of these things and what we can talk about here today publicly if you could go into, if you can't, you can't, but i think this is important for the people in the room and listening outside understand. is it true that the nsa would need a court order based on probable cause to conduct electronic sur