our justice correspondent evan perez has read through the document, and cnn white house correspondent boris sanchez is at the white house. evan, let's start with you. what does this memo say? >> well, this memo contradicts and tries to rebut the argument that was made by devin nunes and the republicans. they said that the christopher steele dossier, the dossier put together by a former british spy and paid for by the democratic national committee and the hillary clinton campaign, they say that that played a crucial role in the decision to open a very intrusive surveillance of carter page, who was a former national security adviser to the trump campaign. and according to this memo that's been released by the democrats, they say that's not exactly the case. they say that the steele dossier was cited in a couple of places in the initial application in october of 2016 that was made to the secret court that oversees the foreign intelligence surveillance act, but they say the fbi had tons of other information. they say that it goes back to 2013 that the fbi had been looking into carter page

let's bring in evan perez who i believe we have by phone to talk more about this. an, obviously, this document just being made available to the public. i notice right away when you look at the first couple pages there are a number of redactions. is there anything in the brief amount of time you had to go over it that jumps out to you right now? >> well, right now, we'll still going through it, ryan, but at this point, it's very important to remind people that the fbi was supposed to release this memo upon the release of the initial memo from devin nunes. obviously, the concern was the national security contingencont. chris wray, the director of the fbi, cited grave concern to damage to national security. and the democrats, one reason why they did this memo is because of the damage done by the republican memo, but it's also fair to point out by adding more information, they're adding to the damage that's being done. we have already seen that in the last few weeks since the republican memo came out. we have seen court cases where some of that damage is playing out. so

let's go straight to the man breaking the news here evan perez. evan, beginning with you, tell me everything you know. >> reporter: brook, i think what is happening is that the white house folks are getting a sense of the frustration from chris wray the fbi director. he certainly made that abundantly clear in his meetings with white house officials and certainly with the justice department because he believes that he obviously was picked by the president and yet his advice to the president to not release this memo certainly not in the version that devin nunes has prepared shouldn't be done and he believes that that is -- that his advice is being disregarded. in fact, the republicans are sort of casting this as some kind of partisan fight including sort of tarring the reputation of christopher wray. he has not threatened to resign i'm told from talking to people familiar with those conversations. he's not directly threatened to resign but he certainly let people know that he is very frustrated and i think that is what's causing people some people at

i want to bring in evan perez, and evan, the warrant was extended multiple times. what does that mean? explain it. >> i think that's an important point for us to remind viewers that not only was it authorized by the fisa court in 2016, but there was renewed, every 90 days, three additional times. for you to do that, for the fisa court to do that, twooit would to be the fisa court released that it revealed they were getting something useful. so, you know, we don't know again what's the outlooig. they're not able to tell us here what the court was also aware of, but their point is this is fruit from a frozen tree. because this dossier was prepared by political activists, someone who was paid by the organization, that it never should have been used or granted. the key to remember is beyond the first time it was approved by 2016, and the way the justice department are able to get that is by showing to the court that not only is this warranted, they are continuing to get valuable intelligence information that supports the idea that carter page, again, the principal here

he ha evan perez is getting more information. evan, what does the surveillance court tell us about the renewals? >> first of all, to get one of these warrants, you have to be able to show a judge that you have reason to believe that someone is acting as an agent of a foreign power. it was first granted, and then after 90 days was renewed three additional times. it tells us that the fbi told this judge, or presented to this judge information that indicates that they believe that the surveillance was yielding fruit, was yielding valuable information that supports this idea that carter page or whoever you would have in a surveillance is acting as an agent of a foreign power. again, today the president tweeted about the sacred investigative process. and wolf, what we're seeing from this document is a little bit of a picture of how messy investigations are. yes, sometimes you use information from informants that are not clean. obviously when you're investigating criminal organizations, you use criminal informants, people who are murder

i'm going to start now with justice correspondent evan perez on this story. what's happening, evan? >> right now the special counsel, robert mueller, has announced charges against 13 russian individuals and three russian entities related to violations, trying to interfere with the u.s. elections in 2016 elections. we're still going through the indictment that's been returned here. but it appears this has to do with the russian interference into the 2016 elections. and some of these individuals, we assume, are still in russia, and probably will never be arrested by u.s. authorities, but this is the first action we are seeing right now that directly related to the interference that occurred in the 2016 election that president trump still doesn't really believe actually occurred. robert mueller basically now saying not only did it occur but we know who did it and this includes this outfit in st. petersburg, russia, called the internet research agency, which is the agency, the front for the russian spy agencies that u.s. investigators believe was being used not only to manipulate social

evan perez, i want your analysis of what we just saw.hose images, they are simply awful. >> they are, wolf, and i think, you know, all day we've been hearing from some of the law enforcement officials who have been looking at some of this material, and they've been -- they've called it extremist. they've called it disturbing. again, all part of a greater picture of signs that were out there for anybody who might have been able to put it together. unfortunately, nobody really had a full picture of how disturbed this young man is. and look, i think the fact is now that he is now facing these charges, he's talking, i think one of the things that's going to happen is they're going to try to figure out how much of this he really believed, some of this extremist stuff that he really believed, how much of it was him just acting out, trying to get attention, trying to appear sort of bigger than he was. he seemed to be a weird kid in high school, which is obviously not an unusual thing. i mean, a lot of kids go through periods in high school wher

but first let's go to our justice correspondent evan perez. evan, what is the latest on rachel brand stepping down? >> wolf, we're told rachel brand is planning to step down as the number three official at the justice department. normally we don't pay a lot of attention to the associate attorney general but there's been speculation about her role because of the focus on rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who oversees the mueller investigation, the russia and whether or not president trump decides to either fire or forces him out from office so if rosenstein were out, the person next in line to oversee the investigation would be the associate attorney general and that was rachel brand. now we're told she's stepping down to take a job at walmart. we know who this is a big job for her. there's been a lot of pressure on whether or not she would be able to handle overseeing the type of investigation. she's never tried cases there's been a lot of speculation as to whether or not would stay in that position and oversee this investigation. now

. >> let's get try it evan perez. we heard immediately from the president today saying that this concludes in effect, or indicates no collusion and no impact on the election definitely the indictments make a judgment on that? >> it really did not. this is not over. we know that robert mueller has a lot more information and we don't know whether or not there are additional cases yet to come. this is an incredibly detailed indictment that describes a very specific warfare operation against the united states. and it was designed to exploit political divisions in the united states. and in the end was designed to help donald trump get elected. it was called operation locketa which is an area in russia which is where the research agency was operating of they were showing up to work every day in russia and they were operating behind the scenes, twitter accounts, social media accounts, trying to drive the political operation in the united states. by all accounts, they succeeded beyond everything. one of the people is known as

our evan perez live in washington with what's going on here. an. >> reporter: john, i think you call them big little lies when it comes from the communications director at the white house. certainly at the house intelligence committee, hope hicks declined to answer questions about her time at the white house. she was able to answer some questions ability tout the tran. one of the big questions they had from her is when did she learn about the now famous june 2016 trump tower meeting where russians were meeting with donald trump jr. and others trying to allegedly provide dirt on hillary clinton. she said she didn't know about that meeting until reporters started calling. that would have been me in june of 2017. a few weeks later "the new york times" reported the story. she said she didn't have much of a role in that misleading statement that was issued to "the new york times" and to the public. the question now is what are the little lies that she says she has now told on behalf of the president. she says there's nothing substantive, nothing rela

i want to bring in cnn correspondent brian todd and cnn justice correspondent evan perez. he have arn evan, what more have you learned about what the fbi received about this shooter? >> it was a report that was sent in to the fbi in 2017. this was a comment that was left on a youtube video and it said something to the effect of, "i'm going to be a professional school shooter." the fbi says they did look into it. they spoke to the person who called in the report, who reported the threat, and they said that they looked -- they went through databases that the fbi has access to, but it appears they never were able to identify this person. now, there is a lot of questions that are still outstanding for the fbi, because obviously the statement, the comment that was left on the youtube channel was left in the name of this shooter, nikolas cruz. so the question that the fbi still has to figure out how to answer is why, if this person is still using his name, why is it that they weren't able to track him down? and also there apparently was another incidence in which there was anothe

let's begin with justice correspondent evan perez. there's a new report out now that a senior very significant justice department official is stepping down. what do we know? >> that's right. rachel brand is the number three official at the justice department and she would be the person who would be next in line if rod rosenstein resigns or is fired. there's been a lot of speculation about that. we know president trump has been very angry with rosenstein the handling of the mule investigation, the russia investigation. but now the york times reporting that rachel brand is planning to step down after only being on the job for nine months. why is she stepping down? we know she would be next in line. now if rod rosenstein were to step down or to be fired, the next person who would be in line would be noh francisco. there's been a lot of speculation about what would happen if the president goes through with his various threats and his anger at rod rosenstein who oversees the investigation. rachel brand has never really tried cases. she is

evan perez. >> it is not their candy store. republicans run the white house, the house of representatives, and this is a subject to majority rule. but i think it is just worth pointing out that what the administration did when the nunes memo came out, they said fbi, we don't care what you think, we are releasing this. today, when the democrats have a memo that they want to come out, they say, well, the fbi thinks this is very important. so we can't release it. i mean, you know, how stupid do we have to be to believe this nonsense. >> does it not seem hypocritical to you? >> no. because a, you don't know what is in the memo. you don't know. >> what about the nunes memo? >> the other memo was short and it didn't appear to me to be anything that is terribly damaging. this was a longer memo. we don't know what is in there. you are upset on the one hand about the fbi being disregarded and now they are being regarded and you can't have it both ways. >> the point is you either trust the fbi to say what should be classified. >> they sa

our evan perez is reporting that he purchased rifles, ten rifles, all apparently legally, in the past year or just before. and, again, should be noted that given his age, purchasing rifles of any kind, legal, while purchasing handguns would not be legal. new this morning, the white house is signaling that the president is open to improving federal background checks, the question is, how? joining me now is democratic congressman, member of the house judiciary committee, ted lew of florida. let me get your reaction to two things. number one, the fact that this gunman had ten rifles, purchased ten rifles legally within the last year. >> it makes no sense that someone could purchase assault rifles legally, but not handguns. it also makes no sense that the shooter could not have purchased a beer legally, but could still have purchased all these assault rifles. and that's why we need to have gun reform. i think we're seeing an inflexion point in american politics with students speaking out, with silent majority of americans saying enough is enough. we need to have some common sense gun safe

brian todd and evan perez. first to you. you're in the gunman's previous neighborhood here in parkland. we're talking about a tipster calling in this line on january 5th. what exactly was he or she warning the fbi of? >> this tip had horrible and very chilling detail. it almost seems to predict what the shooter was going to do. as you mentioned, the tip got to the fbi on january 5th of this year, 42 days before the shooting. according to the bureau, the tip spoke of the shooter's gun ownership, his desire to kill people, his erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting. the information should have been assessed as a potential threat to life, according to the fbi, but the fbi now admitting that information was never passed on to its miami field office, brooke. that is the horribly disturbing part of all of this. here is a statement from fbi director christopher wray today. quote, we are still investigating the facts. i am committed to getting to the bottom of wha

you look at the latest reporting from our colleague, evan perez, with the number of rounds left.had more than half the rounds left that were expended on the day of that tragic shooting. it's chilling in the sense that

evan perez, thank you for breaking that down for us. and joining me now, cnn national security analyst juliet, cnn legal analyst michael moore, scott generjennings and michael mcmullen. >> scott, the president said that the memo vindicated him from the russia probe. today he said the memo was, quote, a bust, and that the entire russia investigation is a quote "illegal disgrace." interpret that for me. how is the special counsel probe an illegal disgrace? >> look. there is valid reason to be investigating russian meddling in the election. that's the president's position. he's been very upset about the russian investigation from the get-go because he thinks it calls into question the legitimacy of his victory. i don't care that's true. i think the russians tried to meddle in the election and they did in different ways but we have yet to see actual evidence of collusion between the trump campaign and the russians. so that's going to be the president's position. the democrats of course have a different position. they traded memos. i think m

evan perez, jeffrey toobin. by the way, you can see chris cuomo's exclusive interview in its entirety later tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern on anderson cooper "360." don't miss it. it's really fascinating. >>> there's also more breaking news we're following. we're getting new information about the rapid expansion of the special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. >>> plus, the spectacular launch of the world's most powerful rocket. at ally, we created a savings account with a great rate. but if that's not enough, our app helps monitor your spending too. and if that's not enough to help you save, we could start a carpool. look at this traffic. don't worry. ok, if that's not enough we'll start a trainpool. oh i have a meeting in five minutes. and if that's still not enough... i got it. we'll just create a shortcut. we'll do anything, seriously anything to help you save. ally. do it right. talking 4th quarter? yes. with the extra third rowr... of seats. they think it's theirs. look at them, they have no idea!

evan perez, shimon prokupecz. evan perez, let me begin with you. tell me what happened. >> brooke, it was a surreal scene. i was here when rick gates was charged and the scene was quite different today. he sat quietly, listened as the judge read from court documents and then he said, yes, your honor, repeatedly, as she asked him he understood that he was pleading guilty and giving up his right to certain rights, the fact that hemy not be able to appeal the sentence that he is about to get. he said he understood, for instance, that his cooperation with special counsel mueller would affect his sentence. at this point the judge told him he could get between 57 and 71 months in prison, he is a man in his 40s, brooke. he has kids. this has been weighing on him. we know he has been in talks with the special counsel's office for well over a month over whether or not to do a plea agreement. it is during one of those meetings with the special counsel february 1st, during what's known as a proffer agreement meeting that he lied to the special counsel. that's

evan perez, we got new information from the sheriff, fbiin fbi, and atf. what stood out to you?> the fact that the suspect mixed in with the kids running for their lives from the school, he mixed in together to get away, and then ends up essentially behaving like a normal person. you know, goes to the walmart and buys something to drink at the subway inside that store, and then goes to a mcdonald's nearby, and then sits there for a while, apparently, perhaps thinking over what he had just done, and then the police manage to arrest him thereafter, so he's on the loose, as you saiding for more than an hour, and just imagine having just carried out the shooting. he climbs through all three floors of the school, shoots people on all three floors of that school, and then manages to put down his gone, put down the backpack he carried, and then makes a getaway with all the people who are fleeing for their lives. remarkable thing they just described. >> he also, the atf representative told us that the weapon, the ar-15 style rifle was legally purchased by the individual about a year or

this is from our evan perez who is our justice correspondent.ne official who has worked on many shootings says even seasoned law enforcement officials found the shooting scene to be one of the most difficult they encountered. officials said they wouldn't soon forget in scene. the source says they were disturbed by the crime scene beyond the bodies and blood were piles of back packs and cell phones dropped. some still ringing >> as i listened to the chilling cell phone video and licensed to the pop pop pop, this was aimed semiautomatic fire, aimed semiautomatic fire where somebody was essentially shooting humans trapped inside a classrooms and inside of hallways. >> i think my mom said did they have security cameras. >> any did. i'm learning that's how they were able to identify the shooter through the security cameras at the school. the next update from law enforcement officials, 10:30 tomorrow morning, correct? down in florida. yes. that's how -- so security cameras are -- they know who did it. they know exactly thousand happened. and -- luckil

joining me now, cnn justice correspondent evan perez and boris sanchez. lay out for us what this document says. >> well, i think the importance of this memo is that it adds at least a significant new information about the time line of when the justice department and the fbi went to the secret surveillance court to get this very intrusive surveillance warrant to be able to surveil carter page who at the time if you remember in 2016 was named as a trump campaign adviser. national security adviser to the trump campaign. the time line is like this. in july, late july of 2016, the fbi opens a counterintelligence investigation into russian meddling in the election and possible contacts with the people in the trump campaign. it's not until seven week of that investigation is open that the first iteration that the first memos from steele make its way into the hands of those investigators. so people very small -- a small group of people at the fbi headquarters who were doing this very secret, top secret information into the trump campaign. sevens week passes befor

. >> this comes from my colleague, evan perez. we're learning police have recovered an ar-15 style firearm which is in custody of police, law enforcement and the atf is tracing the firearm. now begins the process of trying to figure out how he obtained this weapon. we've heard about this kind of weapon, this style of weapon being used in other shootings. this is not new to law enforcement and certainly tells you the kind of fire power he was dealing with here, he was using to kill. right now the death toll stands at 16. >> death toll stands at 16. i want to talk about this ar-15 in a moment. joining on the phone is the mayor of parkland where this high school is. mayor, thank you for joining us. we're hearing 16 people are dead. is that what you're hearing as well? >> i have heard that there are multiple fatalities. i have not heard a specific number. >> have you also heard that the weapon was an ar-15? >> i have not heard what the weapon was specifically. >> i know you've been speaking to students, speaking to parents, speaking t

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joining me to discuss this, we have gloria borger, evan perez, and kara skinel. evan, what has emerged as the most significant legal question based on this memo? >> look, i think if you talk to republicans, they say that this memo raises real questions about what they say is a breakdown of the legal process. the fruit of the poisonous tree, so to speak, that launches all of this investigation is what they say was a dossier paid for by democrats and hillary clinton campaign. they say that there were four memos -- four fisa applications to do -- >> the initial and follow-ups. >> to do surveillance on carter page. they say that because there was information used from this so-called dossier, that it really wrecks all of this. it makes it illegitimate. if you look at this memo, it doesn't back that up. in fact, it undermines some of the central points. it says, for instance, that there was other intelligence beyond the dossier, beyond the information that came from christopher steele, the british mi-6 agent who prepared it, that was used to get the warrants. if says th

cnn evan perez is out front tonight. evan, this indictment lays out to legal standing really the greatest detail of russian interference we have seen so far. >> it really does, jim. this is document providing russian warfare operation, intended to exploit political divisions in this country, for instance, discouraging people from going to the polls. the goal was to elect donald trump and to damage the presidential campaign of hillary clinton. the russians called it operation lockdown apparently named for st. petersburg. dozens of employees showed up every day to work posing as americans politically active. the biggest name is ol a garr, known for the chef, and sophisticated operation. helped organize political rallies and stoking political passions on twitter, facebook and other social media sites. as far back as 2014, they sent people to so-called purple states like virginia and florida. swing states that helped decide the u.s. presidential elections and russians were in touch with people connected today the trump campai

evan perez outfront. t has had criticism of rod rosenstein happened link of the russia investigation. asking whether rod rosenstein was on my team. people have said well if rod rosenstein goes away, brand would take over. so her departing is a big deal, isn't it? >> it is a big deal. as you mention t erin, she would be next in line if, as you mention, the president does go through with the decision to fire rod rosenstein or force him to resign. rachel brand is actually leaving for a top legal job at walmart. and we are told by people close to her this is a job that pays in the millions of dollars. and she considered essentially a once in a lifetime opportunity. but, look, there is no secret that there is a lot of dysfunction going on in this administration. there is a lot of positions under rachel brand. she's number three official, associate attorney general. a lot of jobs underneath her that are not filled with permanent people who have been appointed by the president. so she's really carrying a heavy lo

you look at the latest reporting from our colleague, evan perez, with the number of rounds left. he had more than half the rounds left that were expended on the day of that tragic shooting. it's chilling in the sense that you think could there have been more victims had he continued with the plan? we may not have answers to this any time soon. much of this will depend on his statements. why did he stop? did the gun jam? was he thwarted by other means? that's a question we need to get to the bottom of. it will come from three different sources. questioning the shooter himself, secondly if there was cctv coming from inside the building to determine how did this situation play out and lastly from the witnesses who were there, taking their statements. that's something that's going to take time. but as we put together that full picture hopefully we'll try to determine to some degree what played out and what caused him to stop. >> what is your reaction to this breaking news that he tried to break a window and that authorities believe he was trying to create a sniper's perch so that he

. >> this is a story that i did with jeff zeleny and evan perez and what we've been told is that at the white house there is concern, deep concern, that christopher wray will quit, will resign in and around the release of this memo. we have been reporting for several days now that the fbi, the justice department as a whole and the fbi in particular has been arguing nonstop to the white house, to the hill that this is a terrible idea to release this russia memo. the white house of course and republicans on capitol hill argue back that they believe that that argument is because the fbi is concerned that it looks bad. regardless, this is -- this is something that we are hearing which is noteworthy for many reasons, not the least of which is that christopher wray, we have to remember, was president trump's pick for the fbi after he fired james comey. >> right. >> i should also tell you, brooke, that i am told by a source familiar with this that chris wray has not directly said, you know, by the way, i might quit because that's not his style. that's not something that he would do. it's just

evan perez with the facts. >> reporter: the way it works is that the fbi does the background investigationn people who are applying for security clearances and that is what happened with the rob porter investigation. the white house chose to basically tell the fbi keep digging, keep investigating and they came back again and presented their findings to the white house. that is how the process works. the white house decides who gets a security clearance based on the investigation that the fbi does. they provide the raw information but it is up to the president to decide whoo he wants his team in the white house. the president is the ultimate classification authority and ultimate authority on who gets security clearance. if he wants to have rob porter get a security clearance, he can do that. what is astounding today is they were basically saying this is not us. taking no ownership of what is the function of the white house, the white house counsel office, the white house security office. these are the people who would decide based on what the fbi found whether or not rob porter or anybody e

>> my colleague tells evan perez that the suspect purchased 10 firearms. the question is where he purchased all those weapons. where are all those weapons at the moment now. and we know, of course, that the atf and conducting a trace. and from interviews both with gma and florida sun sentinel, we've lerarned from his host parents that he did, indeed, have that ar-15 rifle in that home. the parents thought they had the only key to the lock. we know now that did not happen. the big question is, wolf, where are all of those weapons? that's something police are trying to track down. wolf? >> there are other developments unfolding. president trump is urging folks to be reflective after it was his own national security advis adviser. . >> very sad that the fbi missed all the many signals sent out by the florida scoot shooter. this is not acceptable. they are spending too much time trying to prove russian collusion with the trump campaign. there is no collusion. get back to the basic and make us all proud, closed quote. some of the people called this disgusting,

we have cnn justice correspondent evan perez here for us with the latest. evan, what are you learning? >> this was information warfare, as you said. it was intended to exploit political divisions in the united states. ultimately to elect donald trump and to hurt the candidacy of hillary clinton. it was called operation lockout. it was apparently named for a neighborhood in st. petersburg, russia. this is where the internet research agency, a company based there in st. petersburg was doing its job. essentially people were showing up to work, posing as americans, using fake accounts on social media, fake bank accounts all to sow divisions in this country. evgeni pregoshin is known as putin's chef because he owns a catering company that is closely tied to the russian government. they had a monthly budget as high as $1.25 million and apparently this operation was extraordinarily successful. rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general addressed all of this at a press conference this afternoon. here's what he had to say. >> in 2014 the company established a transl

. >>> let's bring in evan perez for the big picture.d the concept that superseding indictments? >> jake, we expected there might be a superseding indictment especially against manafort. gates was another camp. according to sources we talked to, he was talking to the special counsel's office about a possible plea agreement, something that would essentially avert this step whereby they file new charges against hyim, but now 32 charges filed over in al exandria indicate the talks fell apart, there is no deal for rick gates, and so that means right now they are both headed to trial. that's a big deal because here -- until now, we thought there might be some kind of a plea agreement whereby rick gates would be testifying against manafort and other people higher up in the investigation. at this point, now, it appears that those talks have fallen apart. there is no deal at this time, and so now these two men are now facing charges in both here in d.c. and over in alexandria. trial, we don't know when that happens, but at the earliest, later th

evan perez is outfront. and i've laid out the time line about someone knows. >> that's right. s source of knowledge of the text tells us that the text message actually related to preparations for praesident obama. said he stayed out to avoid any political interference in what is law enforcement matter. so that's why senator johnson's highlighted this message because he says it indicates that president obama was actually keeping tabs of the clinton email investigation. but as you pointed out, you know, this text message is from september 2016, a couple months after the fbi director james comey cleared hillary clinton and said there would not be any charges. so the time line senator johnson put out makes so sense. and as you noted three days after the text message was sent, obama was in china as confronted russian president about what the russians were up to. so it appears this is yet another one of these text messages that is being misinterpreted, erin. >> misinterpreted of course for political purpose pretty clearly in this case. thank you very much. now let's go to retired fb

evan perez over at the federal courthouse, thanks very much. let's talk about this, get some analysis. joining us, our chief political analyst gloria borger and jim zeleny. gloria, you've obtained this very important letter that rick gate wrote to family and friends. >> yes, and it gives you some insight of the pressure he felt given what he's going to do today at 2:00 in the afternoon. the portion of the letter that we've received is addressed to friend and family. it says, given the news reports of last week, i wanted to give everyone an update of the events that will occur today. since the indictment has been handed down last october, there's been great pressure on our family, and these last several months have been excruciating. last weekend there were several news outlets that wrote false and misleading statements concerning my situation. despite my initial desire to vigorously defend myself, i have had a change of heart, and that reflec reflects evan's reporting. the reality of how long this legal process would take, the cost, and anticip

evan perez. and justice reporter cara, where to start. evan let's go to you. now we have this memo there's been so much build up to it. three and a half pages, critics say it's misleading. what's the central allegation here? what stood out to you? >> i think the central allegation here from republicans who prepared this is that there were four fisa warrants, four surveillance authorized on carter page. and according to the memo the fbi and the justice department failed to disclose that this dossier prepared by christopher steele, a former mi 6 agent, he failed to disclose that this dossier was funded initially by democratic donors, by hillary clinton's campaign. they say because of that it undermines essentially -- a breakdown of legal process, undermines the entire process, and undermines the investigation that we now are living with. i think for a document obviously that's based on omissions, right, they're saying the fbi and justice department failed to disclose this stuff to the judge that approved these warrants, there is a lot that's missing here. there

evan perez has been carefully monitoring all of these late breaking developments. first of all, evan, update our viewers on what the memo actually says. >> reporter: right, wolf. this 3 1/2-page memo was released by the house intelligence committee, written by the gop staff that reports to devin nunes, the chairman that have committee. the basic point they're making is that there was a breakdown in the legal process, that they say this undermines the legitimacy and legality of a fisa warrant obtained on carter page who president trump said was a foreign national security adviser to his campaign. the first warrant was issued in october of 2016 and there were three renewals of that fisa warrant, approved by a court. according to this document, they say that the steele dossier, the dossier prepared by christopher steele, former mi6 officer, british intelligence officer, that they say that the information he was being paid for, ultimately, by the dnc, by the clinton campaign, was not disclosed to the secret fisa court, which approved these warrants. they say because of

for example, the reporting of evan perez was sharing, they obtained information from the surveillanceof carter page, which merited the extension of the fisa warrant. by the way, he wasn't even under surveillance when he worked for the trump campaign, so he wasn't spied on as the president alleged so many times. >> we were whitewashed and if you believe that you were mislead. let me prove it. he later went on to say that the fisa was based on fundamentally the steele dossier. how can you tell me what the fisa warrant is based on if you've never red the warrant. and he acknowledged he hadn't. so how do you know how significant the steele dossier is in the warrant? he went on to say erroneously that document was reviewed for sources and methods weren't exposed. why don't you tell that to mr. steele. clearly he had a relationship with the fbi that might have involved money. next time they ask him to cooperate in ha investigation, because mr. steele was exposed, what do you think ta british citizen would saw, mr. shaw, do you want to talk? enough with the whitewash. those are two facts and

. >> evan perez, please stay with us. if y now you have a long-time business partner who we assumed wouldn't testify against manafort if there was a trial. in your contact with manafort's legal team in the past months, is there an indication that would be enough, that you had a credible witness inside business dealings to testify against him. would that get manafort to cut a deal, or is he stubborn and in for trial? >> you know this from covering stuff over the years, you get a lot of bravado, right? everyone right now says, sure, we want to get a trial. they say they're getting ready for trial, they want to do battle. they filed a lawsuit against the special counsel challenging the jurisdiction of the special counsel to even bring these charges. so they're looking to fight on various grounds. but i got to tell you, this is a game changer. the idea that you will get rick gates, who is a close employee of paul manafort, he did everything for him, that he would turn against manafort has to change your calculus. manafort is

evan perez is breaking that story tonight. to the background material, this crucial background material upon which it is based, what are you learning about the context of this question when the president said are you on my team? >> well, the context of this, erin is the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein went to the white house in december seeking the president's help to block the document demands from the house intelligence chairman, devon nunes. sources familiar with the meeting had the president had other things on his mind upcoming testimony on house committee. the president asked rod rosenstein where he thought the investigation between the links between russians and his campaign was headed, and he went on to ask whether rod rosenstein was quote on my team. now, the exchange could raise questions as to whether president trump was looking to interfere with that mueller investigation, which is looking of course into potentially legal coordination by the trump campaign, and obstruction of justice by this white house, eri

evan perez is outfront this evening. how does this get them closer is this. >> potentially closer. rick gates is cooperating witness in robert mueller investigation. and that's a big deal not only to paul manafort, gates business partner, but potentially others in the trump campaign still under investigation in this russian meddling investigation. after all, manafort was the former campaign chairman. and in court today, prosecutors described the scheme in which the two long time business partners laundered $30 million, failed to pay taxes for almost ten years and used real estate to fraudulently secure more than $20 million in loans. gates pleaded guilty to two criminal charges, one was conspiracy to defraud the united states. and the second was making a false statement. now we know that plea negotiations have been going on for about a month. and it was during one of those meetings with prosecutors and fbi agents that gates admits now that he lied. that's one of the charges he pleaded guilty to today. charges we have seen in the last couple of days, jim, shows that the government b

evan perez joins me now with the facts. where did sarah sanders mislead us today? does the process work? >> the way it works, the fbi does the background investigation on people who is applying for security clearances. that's what happened here with the rob porter investigation. the fbi found this information very quickly, as they were doing that investigation. they reported back to the white house, as they were doing it. the white house chose to, basically, tell the fbi, keep digging, keep investigating. and they came back again and presented their findings pack so the white house. that's how it works. the white house decides who gets the security clearance, based on the investigation that the fbi does. it's up to the president who decide who he wants on his team at the white house, anderson. the president is, frankly, the ultimate classification authority. if he wants to have rob porter get a security clearance, he can do that. what's astounding today was simply that they were basically saying, this is not us. they were taking no ownership of what really is a fun

. >> i was reminded this weekend by evan perez, our justice department reporter, that the clinton foundation the bases was that was peter schweitzer's book "clinton cash." a lot of strong charges in that book. and i don't recall republicans objecting to that book being used for the clinton foundation probe. >> well, i'm not really familiar with that detail. but i would like to comment on some things that mr. himes just said. there is a difference between saying it's politically motivated and revealing who paid for it. i think that is a huge difference. as far as the democrat memo, when we were in our meeting i think we saved the democrats from some hypocrisy here because adam schiff was making the case that we should not release our memo unless it was vetted. it had been vetted. then they wanted to immediately release theirs without it being vetted. that's why i voted against it. if they want to vet it, i'm in all in favor of -- i would to shed light on all of this, jake, i really do. i think the american people deserve that. that is our job. >> go ahead. >> i would take minor issue of that.

type and style of weapon that was used for this massacre and now authorities telling my colleague evan perezhat they believe that the suspect had ten firearms, all of them rifles. right now they're dong a lot of police work trying to figure out where he purchased them, where they were hidden, if they were hidden somewhere because according to this family, he had that one ar-15 weapon at home. and so a lot of questions, jim, today, as we're learning more about his arsenal of weapons. >> and what else did this couple say about the guns that cruz had? >> reporter: you know, this couple said they never saw the aggression that we have now seen from his social media and other acts. they just thought he was a little weird. and they did know that he had an ar-15 style rifle and they had a conversation about guns. take a listen. >> the before he moved in, one of the stipulations is he had to get a gun safe. and we got a gun safe on the way back from lantana, from move his stuff to our house. >> he didn't have free access to this gun? >> no, no. i thought i had the only key to the gun safe. >> you had

asha, evan perez is reporting that white house officials are concerned, wray might actually resign over this. do you think that could happen? >> i don't think it would happen and i don't think he should. i think the fbi needs someone who is going to stand up for them and i think that he's doing that. he's also there to protect the integrity of the investigations and, brianna, i want to take a zoom back and not forget what the fisa is about. carter page was on the fbi's radar as far back as 2013. he was warned by the fbi that the russians were trying to target him to be a spy. so it is not at all surprising to me that the fbi would have kept tabs on that, and would have been concerned if he ended up working for the russians and then being a part of the campaign. so that is the kind of context that i think if it is excluded from this memo would be -- would make it incredibly misleading to the american public. >> jamil, it is even logistically hard to know exactly how all of this is going to proceed. it is really unchartered territory to release a document this way. you worked in the white

formally destinati lly diagnosee that would potentially change the course of events according to our evan perez who sees that this suspect got this assault weapon legally. >> perfectly legally. >> and as much as he doesn't want to potentially, you know, start the ball rolling on questions about gun violence, and good gun rights, which come up every single time understandably, this happens. when you talk about the mental state and you talk about red flag after red flag after red flag, the question is already being asked and needs to be asked, why could this gunman, this suspect, get this assault weapon legally? >> we heard special agent from the fbi talking about that youtube posting that somebody with the same name as the shooter last year posted about wanting to be a professional school shooter. the fbi special agent saying that the fbi looked into it and could not find the person. but he posted -- here is president trump walking out. we'll talk more about this after. let's listen to president trump. >> my fellow americans, today i speak to a nation in grief. yesterday a school filled with inn

evan perez just got a statement, not withstanding that rick gates pled today i continue to maintain my innocence. i had hoped and expected my business colleague would have had the strength to continue the battle to prove our innocence. for reasons yet to surface, he chose to do otherwise. this does not alter my commitment to defend myself against untrue, piled-up charges contained in the indictments against me. that's from paul manafort, statement we just received from him. clearly all this talk about whether or not this guilty plea and cooperation by rick gates is going to put any pressure on paul manafort. he claims he will continue to defend himself and is sorry that his friend, his business partner, rick gates, has now chosen to cooperate. >> we'll see how long that lasts. the pressure clearly is going to mount on paul manafort. we saw rick gates and his lawyers get in that vehicle and drive away from the federal building in washington, d.c. gloria, big picture right now, an important moment in the robert mueller investigation, russia investigation. what happens just happened is se

i think to get back to something that our colleagues evan perez and -- earlier about the time line, thinkhat makes this even more troubling, and there are various levels of sadness obviously we're all feeling as we look at this. if you think about the youtube posting we talked about yesterday and obviously at that point we mentioned there wasn't specificity, there wasn't credibility. in the field we call the e-guardian. it's a system which allows you to track different threats, to do some type of analysis and determine is there a there there. if that information went into holdings and then you had this person doing what we want the public to do, picking up the phone and calling the fbi, a simple search of that person's name may have hit on that original holding. that's why i'm concerned it's not only the fact that the information wasn't passed on from the fbi headquarters tip line to the field office that needed that information. i'm wondering if there was even any type of initial scrub to determine is this someone who was just providing information, maybe a poisoned pen, something to tha