the former fbi official at the heart of that quid pro quo story?t back after it had spent three days on constant rotation at fox news and the conservative media? that former fbi official apparently was on mike flynn's payroll during the campaign, getting paid by flynn two weeks before the scandal. got $5,000 from general flynn on october 4th, $3,000 from flynn on october 13th. that so happens to be two days before the coverup quid pro quo story broke. then he got another $20,000 from general flynn down the line. when he did walk back the story he said he considers general flynn a friend. i'm sure that was so, quite sure. it helps to know now his friend the general was also his boss. he was on the general's payroll. just as it helps to know his boss was a foreign agent. when he was breaking that story all about hillary clinton's e-mails. it does make you wonder what else there is to learn about that particular side of the story. watch this space. that does it for us tonight. we will see you again tomorrow. now it's time for "the last word with lawre

we're also learning that comey had fbi officials reach out to staff at the

you or a senior fbi official. how do you see this? >> i don't see that the president would make that order. if, in fact, the fbi was engaged in some investigation related to national security, the fbi may have gone forward seeking a fifsa order with regard to that national security threat. that wouldn't be ordered by the president. the statements made by president obama's former -- spokesperson for president obama, they clearly said that the president didn't order that. i don't know that anybody has clearly denied that it ever happened. it's unclear what happened here. we've got -- >> right. let's pause on that point here, especially for folks watching, trying to keep up with it. just on what director comey is trying to do here. let me read from "the new york times." statement by the justice department or comey refuting trump's allegations would be, quote, a remarkable rebuke of a sitting president, putting the nation's top law enforcement officials in the position of questioning the truthfulness of the government's top leader. what do

late this evening, wolf blitzer asked congressman schiff about it. >> an fbi official, as you may haverd tell cnn that james comey hasn't received an official request from your committee to testify. chairman nunes -- a spokesman says director comey would not come to testify before the committee without a formal request that has to be signed not just by him but also by you. nunes says you refused to sign that invitation. is that true? >> it's certainly true the chairman wanted me to agree to a hearing on tuesday at 10:00 instead of the opening hearing. we were not will doing that. we found out about the cancel laying of the open hearing in a roundabout way when the agency said, what do you want us to talk to you about on tuesday. we said, what hearing on tuesday? >> back now with the panel. does it strike you as odd the way all of this is playing out on the house side? i talked to one committee member yesterday, a democrat who said, we can have multiple meetings in a week. there shouldn't have to be just one meeting. >> it's very odd. it's bizarre, actually. i think that most people tha

it runs about two minutes but this is what he told fbi officials in boston. we pulled the full event and it is on our website. his first public comments about what happened. let me first read a couple of comments on our facebook page. wilkss fm nd-- podheney cts thoba aintriosein up sdogornnt oth waou itls swsheisinhe moatha f ari. the truth saying -- is the truth and the facts are the facts. wikileaks makes a valiant effort to make sure that everything on their site is truthful. fear the truth have something to hide. here is more with the fbi director, james comey. in our great country, all of us have a reasonable expectation of privacy in our homes, in our cars, in our devices. it is a vital part of being an american. the government cannot invade our privacy without good reason, reviewable in court. that is the heart of america. but it also means that with good reason, reviewable in court, the government through law enforcement can invade our private spaces. orderedthe bargain of liberty. the most common example is that if law enforcement has trouble -- has

a top fbi official visited the mosque before president trump's inauguration. the same message of tolerance. no word if if virginia's republican party wants an apology from him as well. in fairfax, mike valerio. >> the republican party of virginia still hasn't commented on just how many people signed that petition. >>> going to feel like spring. topper shutt out on the weather terrace. >> it's going to be a slow still some upper 40s. we'll come back. we'll let you know if the winds die down and let you know if we're looking at 70s other the weekend. >>> police are investigating at least two threatening phone calls made to rockville high following the alleged rape 14-year-old student. the two suspects are 17 and 18- year-old students who recently immigrated to this country. police say the older suspect is undocumented. administrators say they do not ask students about their immigration status. police have a school resource officer at that school full time and that the incident happened in an area that's more remote in the school. administrators are reviewing the

. >> senior fbi officials and homeland security are aware and tracking this closely. the only guidance they have are what you are reporting, two separate crime scenes, one officer being stabbed at the parliament and another people getting mowed down by a vehicle. and an investigation is underway to see if they are and people are considering this a terrorist incident even know it's not officially described as such. law enforcement officials clos working relationship we have the british government. >> and the police in new york city are increasing security a-. >> and the president is now briefed. >> yes, by mcmaster, the president is here at the white house in meetings mostly about health care today. we haven't heard much more and we reached out to senior white house officials and find out what the president knows and what the reaction from the white house is and will be. the president made a brief comment about this on camera, they were in the room for health care talks, he apologized that he was dealing that situation in in london but george as you know, day 62 of thi

senior fbi officials asked justice department to reject the claim, but three days later, no one is talking. critics say president trump is looking to deflect attention from investigations into russia's involvement in the election. the president's new executive travel ban, it's also receiving pushback from democrats and immigration groups. [ chanting ] >> no ban, no wall, no ban, no wall. >> this is some of the pushback we're talking about. police arrested five people who were part of a protest against the trump administration's revised travel ban. this was the scene this morning outside the customs and border patrol building in northwest d.c.. >> we're here today because we think that cbp as the enforcers of this ban has a responsibility and we must stand up to them. >> iraq is removed from the new version of the travel ban which takes effect march 16th. >>> hud secretary ben carson niceness pledge meaning everyone would be nice for one week. however, many are having a hard time going along with the pledge given dr. carson's referring to slaves as immigrants in his first speech to hud staf

the senior fbi officials encouraging the former director of national intelligence to speak out. >> there was no wiretap against trump tower during the campaign conducted by any part of the national intelligence community. >> reporter: none at all? >> none at all. >> reporter: and james clapper, who has served under president obama, says president trump could have found that out for himself with one phone call. >> i think the department of justice probably could clear this up in a heartbeat. >> reporter: instead, the president seems to have relied on an article posted friday by the right wing breitbart website, detailing the allegations of a conspiracy theory loving radio talk show host, mark levin. >> how many of trump's people were eavesdropped on? how many had their conversations intercepted, recorded, transcribed? because, this, ladies and gentlemen, is the big scandal. >> reporter: the white house will not say where the president got his information. and spokeswoman sarah huckabee sanders tried to qualify what the president stated as fact when pressed by martha raddatz. >> the presid

fbi officials raided the family home ofjuan thompson in st louis missouri, and arrested him for alleged harassment against his ex—girlfriend. he began making threatening e—mails and phone calls tojewish centres, identifying her as the one responsible. and when he used his own name, authorities it was to make it appear as though she was framing him. federal papers detail thompson's communications. one of the e—mails includes a promise to create ajewish newtown, a reference to the december 2012 shooting at an elementary school in newtown connecticut where 26 kids died. prosecutors have charged him with cyber stalking. members of the anti—defamation league — one of the groups that received a phony bomb threat at their new york headquarters from thompson, thanked investigators but expressed alarm at the pattern of hate crimes. just because there has been an arrest today around our bomb threat does not mean the threats will disappear or stop. hate towards the jewish community and other minority groups is very real... and deeply concerning. just this week, another jewish cemetery has been des

fbi officials raided the family home of thompson and arrested him for eight of the nine incidents.in a campaign of harassment against his ex—girlfriend. he began making threatening e—mails and phone calls to jewish centres, making threatening e—mails and phone calls tojewish centres, claiming her to be responsible. when he used his own name authorities say it was to make it appear as though she was framing him. federal papers detail thompson's communications. 0ne e—mail includes a promise to create ajewish e—mail includes a promise to create a jewish newtown, in reference to the 2012 shooting at an elementary school in newtown, connecticut, where 20 kids died. members of the antidefamation group that received a threat at the new york headquarters from thompson bank investigators and expressed continued alarm at the pattern of hate crimes. just because there's been an arrest today around oui’ there's been an arrest today around our bomb threat does not mean that the threats have disappeared or will stop. hate towards thejewish community and other minority groups is very real. it is

the fbi would not comment nor would the white house. trump officials denied any evidence of collusion. mostly the fbi is focused on the stolen and published e-mails by wikilea wikileaks. u.s. officials said the information was not drawn from the information compiled by the former british intelligence issue. it suggested coordination with associates and operatives. this investigation is ongoing. this is what we are told in terms of what is going on with the fbi with the counter intelligence investigation. dave and christine. >> new reporting from the justice team. if you are waking up, new developments in all this. all of this came down as another stunning controversy unfolded on capitol hill. now questions if the house intelligence probe of the information was compromised. devin nunes announced conversations may have been incidentally collected by agencies conducting surveillance after the election. nunes said to be steaming at the intel he read. personally briefed the president on the development without informing his democratic counterparts. we are t

fbi director james comey is disputing the president's claim and senior fbi officials made that clear the justice department over the weekend. law enforcement sources say the fbi pushed back because the president's claim falsely suggests the fbi broke the law. at the heart of mr. trump's former president obama ordered wiretapping on the trump campaign, but according to doj, the president cannot order a wiretap if the surveillance involves communication to which a u.s. person is a party. typically the fbi gets the warrant from a special federal court with the approval of the attorney general. former president obama spokesperson denied president trump's claim writing that neither president obama nor any white house official ever ordered surveillance on any u.s. citizen. any suggestion otherwise is simply false. the fbi's investigation into russia's campaign cyberattacks has expanded to include whether trump campaign representatives were coordinating with the russians. part of the probe includes examining electronic intercepts. if the fbi was intercepting communications at trump tower, a

> let him explain then go in. >> when there's investigation under way for example by fbi against that foreign officialbviously is going to say who was that russian, chinese, iranian official talking to as part of the investigation, we have to know. that process is formal, called unmasking. i now need to know the name of that u.s. person. that happens all the time. >> philip, but why would they need to be unmasked if it had nothing to do with russia? because supposedly this is about russia. >> we don't know they were unmasked. >> time out. >> conversation. >> that's what nunez said, they were unmasked. >> no he didn't. >> maybe nunez unmasked them. no one knew this information. >> his question why unmasked and who ordered them. >> can we stand back and look at absurdity of the chairman of the house intelligence committee going to white house to make a public statement and making all of this public today? this is not how you conduct an investigation when you're head of the house intelligence committee. >> it's not -- what about the head of the fbi going public with all the stuff he's been doing, frankly

. >> reporter: fbi officials raided a home connected to juan thompson, the man accused of bomb threats to jewish community centers around the country, investigators said he was trying to frame an ex girlfriend who had broken up with him. he was fired from the online newspaper, the intercept for making up sources. he has been charged with cyberstalking, the criminal exaint states he made eight threatening calls to jccs in his name or the name of his ex girlfriend. he also contacted her employer saying that she made antisemitic statements. leaders are applauding the government's fast work. >> i am confident that we will find and we will prosecute those that have committed these acts of hate. >> reporter: the would have of thets prompted evacuations across the nation since january. in the meantime, a jewish cemetery in new york is the latest target of grave side attacks in recent weeks, at least a dozen head stones were desecrated. the adl is

tonight though an fbi official tells cnn the fbi never received any official request for a second round of director comey's testimony. wolf? >> all right, jessica, thank you. jessica schneider reporting. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, what's the white house saying about all of this? >> reporter: well, they are still not saying how the house intel committee chairman devin nunes made his way on to the white house grounds for that mysterious visit here last week, but, wolf, there is some news over here in terms of staffing here at the white house. the president is adding a familiar face to his staff. the white house confirming just in the last few minutes that daughter ivanka trump will be an unpaid employee advisings the president. her husband, jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, is already a senior adviser to the president so a husband and wife team working inside the west wing with the president. we should point out though that some officials here are already doing some cleanup on a separate front after president trump made some remarks here tha

official. we're covering all of the news "happening now" ." >> jon: the fbi director expected to reveal whether that department is invested getting claims by president trump that his predecessor ordered wiretaps on trump tower during the 2016 campaign flared plus the white house working toward a compromise on health care amid defections from our republican lawmakers. house leader kevin mccarthy updates as. and... a powerful winter storm now moving through canada. we will take you live to one of the hardest hit areas in the northeast. it is all "happening now" ." ♪ >> jon: but we begin with what is another action-packed day for the president. mr. trump just arriving. number one on a two state tour, looking to the second hour of "happening now," i'm jon scott. >> heather: i'm heather childers in for jenna lee, nice to have stuck around with you. pack to say the least, the president getting out of washington, heading to michigan then tennessee appeared he's scheduled to speak in just over an hour after meeting with automakers in detroit. the president expected to announce plans to reevaluate obama

to back it up because he's going to potentially face this very awkward hearing monday drilling fbi officials about what's going on and intelligence officials about where's the evidence and they could say there's a broader investigation going on so we can't get into details but all is very awkward and potentially embarrassing for the white house if no evidence emerges. >> one of the questions has been what led the president to tweet this or what kind of information perhaps did he have to allege wiretapping? so the a.g. jeff sessions was in richmond today and asked about this, did he give the president any information, this is what the attorney general said. >> did you have a chance to brief the president on investigations related to the campaign or did him any reason to believe he was wiretapped by the previous administration? >> look, um, the answer is no. >> in a word -- in a word, matt shlapp, no, so he did not get any word from his attorney general. the president is in nashville tonight. he is talking about his -- i should not say his, the republican's health care bill, but he's been so u

an fbi official tells cnn the house intelligence committee has not officially requested the fbi director to come testify which is odd, very, considering that committee chairman devin nunes said this week's hearing had to be rescheduled because the fbi director could not come in. cnn senior congressional reporter manu raju live on capitol hill. manu, what's going on here? >> reporter: well, the house investigation coming to a total stand still, john, over this fight between the democrats and republicans over the role of devin nunes, the chairman of the committee who did say yesterday that he wanted to hear privately from fbi director james comey, but james comey telling cnn that he's actually not gotten that invite yet and does not want to be in the middle of this tug-of-war between republicans and democrats about how to move forward. now, this is a marked contrast to what was seen on the senate side of the capitol. the leaders of the senate intelligence committee said they are conducting a thorough deep dive into the russian meddling in the elections, something that the chairman of the c

that the fbi investigation into links between the trump administration -- campaign and the russian government. pamela brown and evan perez are with us. what have you learned? >> u.s. officials tell us the fbi has information that indicates associates of president trump communicated with suspected russian operatives to possibly coordinate the release of information damaging to hillary clinton's campaign. james comey made his bombshell announcement monday before congress that the fbi is investigating the trump campaign's ties to russia. the fbi is reviewing that information which includes human intelligence, travel records and business and phone records and accounts of in-person meetings. this is what was raising the suspicions of fbi counter intelligence, the investigation is still ongoing. some caution the information was not conclusive. but the fbi has not commented, nor would the white house, though trump officials have denied that there is any evidence of collusion. >> this gives us insight into what director comey knew when he spoke on monday. >> if you recall, in addition to comey saying the investigation looks at connections with trump associates it says that the inve

one, there continues to be a war of current executive intelligence officials and fbi officials going after the trump administration. there is a war going on. >> pretty unbelievable. >> that with detailed leaks. >> which, by the way, donald trump must have known about when he said last week obama is orchestrating a lot of this stuff. >> they continue to make that accusation. the other thing is another report of not just conversations but meetings between associates of the president and russian officials close to putin -- >> and foreign government is picking this up. >> if that been denied by the president. reince priebus said he looked into it and it's not true. if that is true and continues to be investigated that is a major ongoing problem the administration is going to have to deal with. >> willie, let's say on sessions for a second and then get to this explosive "the new york times" story. but what do you see as the biggest problem? we have people calling for his resignation. that will never happen. it seems at this point in the russian investigation, even fox news is saying recus

i agree with alice that there needs to be an investigation. >> one of the former fbi officials. >> ofteno aha moment. just a drip, drip, drip. that's how it starts. >> that's true, don. if there is a special prosecutor, he will have a hart time staying with the justice department. you can't manage that kind of thing and first he wants to be. these things have a way of mushrooming. it's worth remembering tonight that i objected violently years ago. it happened. the house of representatives. he said i never had sexual relations with that woman. >> breaking news and lots of it coming this evening on cnn. we will continue to follow it. i appreciate my panel. stay with us for the breaking news. that's it for us tonight. we will see you back here tomorrow. >>> live from the george washington university in the nation's capital, this is a town hall with john mccain and lindsey graham. we want to welcome our viewers from the united states and around the world. 24 hours ago, president trump stood before congress and made the case for his presidential priorities. two leading republican senators wil

but other officials say it's premature to gather that inference from the information they've gathered so far. largely circumstantial and fbi can't prove collusion took place. but the information suggesting collusion -- this information is now suggesting that collusion is a large focus of their investigation, the officials said. >> okay, pamela, i want to get back to you now. and ask you what sort of coordination is under investigation here? >> so we're told, don, that most of the fbi has spoke with the stolen and published e-mails by wikileaks including the dnc and those that started in july. the dossier also suggested coordination between trump campaign associate said and russian operatives. >> simone, do we know exactly who is being investigated? >> we don't. our sources and the officials that we spoke to who are familiar with this investigation have not told us. but we do know that four people, some of the people who have been scrutinized that were sort of the trump campaign and sort of the trump world, mike flynn, paul manafort, roger stone, and obviously carter page, they have had some contacts with the russians we're

last year we got reports that white house chief of stab reince priebus asked fbi official s off makeublic statements about contacts between the trump campaign and their intelligence. the white house chief of staff leaning on the fbi about their investigation into the trump campaign in russia. now the fbi refused those entreaties from the white house because that is not how those are supposed to work but now they're doing it again, with fisa warrants? the protocols designed to keep the justice department independent from the white house political pressure the justice department can do its work, those protocols exist for a reason and whatever other nonsense noise is going around this story, what the white house is telling us is that they are through multiple people in the top levels of the white house, the white house chief of staff, the white house counsel they are trying to undo those norms and reconnect law enforcement and investigations in this country to white house partisan political pressure. those norms have never been more important than they are now and they have never been m

edgar hoover spied on the kennedys or the watergate leaks that brought down nixon, senior fbi officialey may have been of the fbi deciding for itself what is best for our democracy. here with us now, we have a super history panel, jeremy bash, former cia chief of staff and national security analyst for us. dalla lithwick, rick stingle, former editor of time and charles kyzer. jeremy, the counterargument on behalf of the deep state, if you will, which is leaks are unavoidable. people are doing their best and everything is infused with politics in washington. by that defense, do you still have concerns about the fbi today? >> well, you have to have concerns about any organization that has as much power, as much investigative power as the federal bureau of investigation. but i think it is also important to note that the modern fbi is a professional organization and they really have two missions, not just criminal investigation, but also national security investigations and we rely on the professionals at the fbi and they are professionals and they are for the very vast majority nonpartisa

investigation telling the "wall street journal" today that jeff sessions' contact with russian officials while the fbi supposed to be investigating trump campaign contacts with russian officials, that fact left the agency "wringing its hands" about how to proceed. i don't know whether or not they wrung their hands but the way they did decide to proceed was to not peep to congress. the "journal" reports this "it's unclear whether anyone in congress knew about the investigation into jeff sessions' russian interactions before sessions was confirmed." just think about that for a second. i mean, whether or not you choose to think about this in the context of hillary clinton's e-mails and what the fbi chose to disclose to congress and the public around that investigation, even setting that aside, congress, the senate was voting on this man to be the top law enforcement official in the country. the fbi, because of its investigation into him knew he had contacts with the russian government. and that he had not disclosed them, and when he was asked directly about them in his confirmation hearing he apparently

tonight fbi officials are demanding a flat out denial from the justice department, but not yet getting one, this after president trump went on a twitter tie rate saturday. terrible, just found out obama had my wires tapped at trump tower just before the victory. how low has president obama gone to tap my phones. bad or sick guy. sources tell cnn, the fbi asked the doj to refute the claims. only a court can order a wiretap. >> the process to obtain a fisa application. involves many levels of senior loadership review, both within the requesting agency agency and the department of justice, and ultimately the court. >> so far, the justice department isn't commenting on trump's twitter accusations. some are asking why comey is refraining from issuing his own statement. since he didn't hold back during the 2016 campaign. president obama vehemently denying president trump's charge. neither president obama or any white house official ever ordered surveillance on any u.s. citizen. any suggestion otherwise is simply false. james clapper also denying the allegation. >> for the part of the nationa

they did their own doubling down to refute the president with senior fbi officials with the former director of national intelligence to speak out. >> there was no wiretap against trump tower conducted by any part of the intelligence community. >> none at all? >> none at all. >> reporter: claims clapper says president trump could have found that out for himself with one phone call. >> i think the department of justice probably could clear this up in a heart beat. >> reporter: instead, the president seems to have relied on an article posted friday by the right wing breitbart website detailing allegatons of a conspiracy theory loving radio talk show host mark lavin. >> how many of trump's people were ea were eavesdropped on and how many had conversationsrecorded, transcribed. >> reporter: they will not say where the president got his information and sarah huckabee sanders tried to state the fact. >> the president of the united states is accusing the former president of wiretapping him. >> i think this is again, something that if this happened, martha -- >> if, if, if, if. [ laughter ] >> i agr

fbi official, as you may have heard, told cnn that james comey hasn't received an official request from your committee to testify. chairman nunes, spokesman for chairman nunes said director comey would not come to testify before the committee without a formal request. that has to be signed, not just by him, but also by you. nunes said you refused to sign that invitation. is that true? >> it is true the chairman wanted me to agree to hearing at tuesday at 10:00 instead of the open hearing. we weren't willing to do that. we found out about the canceling of the open hearing in a very round about way when the agencies reached out to us and said, what do you want us to come talk to you about on tuesday. we had to say, what hearing on tuesday. we have an open hearing on tuesday. so that's the request that we got. we made it clear the majority, we're happy to have director comey come back in closed session. but not as a substitute we were supposed to have with clapper and bendian arendan and yates. now we have the white house saying we would like sally yates to testify. we would like it hear w

particularly one where one of the experts they lined up, a former fbi official talked about an example of how all of this played out during the election. take a look at what he explained. >> i think the answer is very simple and it is what no one is saying. part of the reason active measures have worked is the commander and chief used russian active measures against his opponents. on the 14th of august, his campaign chairman, his -- >> who is his. >> paul manafort sited a story as a fake terrorist attack and used it as a talking point. and donald trump talked about a fake news story from sputnik news that disappeared. he claimed the election could be rigged. that was the number one theme pushed by sputnik news to the election. he made claims of voter fraud. that president obama is not a citizen, that congressman cruz is not a citizen. part of the reason active measures works and it does today, is because they parent the same wines. >> that is what they're sbefring to when russian investigation services take active measures in something like the election. this is the same in european el

been largely on the same page coming out of the hearing on monday with the top intelligence and fbi officialsbut this certainly creates a new schism between the turncoat with the ranking democrats democrat, congressman schiff, calling into question whether chairman nunes conduct this investigation fairly given the fact that he went to the white house before going to other members of the committee itself. >> shepard: was chairman nunes yesterday, during this hearing, this lengthy healing my curing, chairman nunes who said to fbi director comey, you just cast a dark cloud over this and you need to get your work done as expeditiously as possible. it was our understanding that this dark cloud line did not go over well. today, a whole new thing. >> it is. if you remember, president trump had hinted that some information might be coming forward in the weeks ahead on this. of course, this information, according to chairman nunes, came from somebody who came forward and volunteered this information. we don't know if there is any connection there or if the white house had a heads up. but the fact that

while it's true cnn is reporting fbi is investigating communications between russians and trump campaign officials including paul manafort, as of last month manafort said he had yet to be contacted by the fbi. today manafort told us he looks forward to meeting with those conducting what he called a serious investigation into all this so he can discuss the actual facts. >> bring in matthew chance, live in moscow. paul manafort, former campaign manager admitted he worked with this russian billionaire with close ties to vladimir putin. what more can you tell us about that? >> oleg derapaska is one of the co-called oligarchs who rose to wealth and power in the '90s after the breakup of the soviet union. he was the second biggest producer of aluminium in the world. we've not had acknowledged from either the campaign owned by the russian billionaire or paul manafort that there was anything other than the business agreement between them. rusal has told cnn it was consulting advice paid for from manafort, business interests of daripaska. there's been no confirmation that there was anything pushing russian

. >> reporter: fbi officials raided a st.nected to juan thompson, the man accused of bomb threats against the anti-defamation league and some jewish community certains around country. centers around the country. investigators say the 31-year-old was attempting to frame an ex-girlfriend who had broken up with him. thompson is a former journalist fired from the intercept after the online publication said he fabricated quotes and invented sources. he has been charged with one count of cyberstalking which could land anymore jail for up to five years. the criminal complaint states thompson allegedly made eight threatening calls to jccs in his name or the name of his ex-lover including defamatory e-mails and faxes to his exes -- ex's employer. >> while the motive is unclear, the impact is crystal clear. threatening jewish institutions is an anti-semitic act. >> reporter: leaders are applauding the justice department's fast work. >> i am confident as we evidenced in today's arrest in missouri that we will find and we will prosecute

. >> fbi officials raided a st. louis, missouri, home connected to one thompson. man accused of bomb threats against the anti-defamation league and some jewish community centers around the country.invee 31-year-old was attempting to frame an ex-girlfriend who had broken up with him. thompson is a former journalist fired from "the intercept" after the online publications that he fabricated "and invented" sources. he has been charged with one count of cyber stalking, which could last them in jail to up to five years. the criminal complaint states that thompson allegedly made eco-threatening calls to jccs in his name or in the name of his ex-lover, including to his >> -- while the motive is unclear, the impact is crystal clear. threatening jewish institutions is an anti-semitic act. >> leaders are applauding the justice department's fast work. >> i am confident as we evidence in to today's arrest in missouri, we will find and prosecute those who have committed these acts of hatred. >> the wave of threats prompted the evacuation of close to 100s of jccs and synagogues

we're also learning that comey had fbi officials reach out to staff at the justice department over the weekend. part of that discussion, a request that the justice department publicly knock down trump's allegations. tonight white house spokesman sean spicer to cnn moments ago dodging the question when asked twice if comey has his full faith and confidence to remain as director of the fbi. >> reporter: what's the president's view of james comey right now? does he have the president's full faith and confidence to stay on as the fbi director? >> we've only heard unsubstant alted sources make those claims. director comey's not commented on anything he has allegedly said so i'm not going to comment on what people say he might have said. >> reporter: that was sara marie you heard asking that question. smeez out front of the white house. and this is the reality, they're at very serious odds tonight. >> reporter: that's right. there does seem snob distance between the president and the fbi director about his allegation that came seemingly out of the blue over the weekend, a serious allegation

it remains to be seen as reince priebus alluded whether or not -- fbi officials and intelligence officials said they were just trying to track the activities of russia or russian persons and they incidentally picked up members of the trump transition team -- >> adrian a why did the president put this out there? he was the one that started the whole conversation. >> uh-huh. i agree with you. i think he should have not tweeted that and more nuanced. i think it's okay to ask questions? was i wiretapped? was my team surveilled inappropriately? was our privacy rights violated? you know, he should have asked questions more than me definitive statements unless he can back it up with hard evidence. do you think he realized he was calling the former president of the united states a felon? >> um, probably. and i don't think he should do those sort of things. you have to be very careful. first of all, it's wrong to malign anyone's character and defame someone unfairly unless you know for sure that you have factual evidence that that took place. being suspicious doesn't raise the bar high enough to ma

and you take that, you often will have it in the form of an affidavit from an fbi official or another law enforcement officer, and you bring that package to the federal judge. you say, here's the evidence, here's the phone account that we want to wiretap. the judge lks a it all. sometimes the judge will say, you need to rein it in a little bit, this is too broad. there will be a negotiation process. but at the end of the day, you need that judicial approval in order to proceed. >> all right, so, is there any way that president trump is referring to a different type of warrant that was issued in reference to a wiretapping? >> it's hard to know. his tweets are not exactly models of specificity, but it appears that he's either referring to a traditional, domestic warrant, which would require probable cause to believe that a u.s. citizen was engaged in a crime or that the fruits of the wiretap could lead to evidence of a crime, or it could be the fisa warrant. those are the warrants that we've heard talked a lot about recently. those are the ones that capture information concerning foreig

jim comey for his opinion on something that reince priebus did which is call up comey and other fbi officials to dispute the russian intelligence investigation story. and that goes against policies in the white house where you have to get a lawyer's approval because you don't want the white house interfering with ongoing fbi investigations. that is something that my colleague wrote about yesterday which will be a hot topic monday, too. >> jonathan, the awkward relationship between angela merkel and donald trump highlighted by that moment where it appeared he refused to shake hands. what is that about? about. >> i don't know. it looked like junior high school, you know, when you get paired with somebody else in the gym class to dance and you don't want anything to do with them. i thought it was undiplomatic of the president. he obviously is showing his disdain for chancellor merkel and i think the look on her face throughout that brief press conference and the double take she did when he made the joke about surveillance said it all. it's interesting that we're at a point now where the german c

trump over president obama and it's a chance more for the general public to hear from the top fbi official, what does he know? what can they talk about publicly? that, i think, will be helpful for everybody able to watch this. i think for members of the committee, a lot of what will be discussed is already known. at the same time, someone who has watched lots of hearings in my career, there can be questions and answers and sort of a push on certain issues that maybe were not revealed in documents and things that they could draw out of the fbi director that are not in st of the printed record that they have their hands on. so maybe there's some room there, but when you hear the two different sides and republican and democrat talk about this you get a sense on the issue of whether there was any collusion between the campaign of donald trump and the russians, sort of nothing there and maybe a smoke kind of issue. so there might be more to kind of drill into there. now we also, of course, heard from democrat adam schiff on "meet the press" today and he talked about sort of the behind the scene