the staff of the house intelligence committee. learned today that the republican-led house intelligence committee which is supposed to be investigating trump and russia, they interviewed a character named felix sater two days ago, a key figure linking the trump business empire to russia. he's also got interesting organized crime ties that might make him a particularly juicy target for aggressive interrogation. for some reason the house intelligence committee decided they would do their interview with felix sater in new york with no members of congress present two days ago. now we've learned that today the house intelligence committee did another out of state interview today on the friday before christmas in new york. they interviewed a woman who has served as assistant to donald trump and a senior vice president at the trump organization for three decades. every e-mail, every phone call, every meeting, every piece of paper that has gone to or come from donald trump for 30 years has gone through the hands of rhona graff. that's wha

house intelligence committee has made clear that it wants answers we've heard from devon noone is the chair of the house intelligence committee saying that if the department of justice and the f.b.i. did not come forward and provide the information that they are requesting they could be facing charges of contempt and taken to court now at this point the intel committee the house intelligence committee wants information about what happened regarding the firing of an f.b.i. agent peter struck who was investigating donald trump there are rumors that he was fired because he had a clear bias against the president and was supporting hillary clinton now they've given december fourth monday as the deadline for when they are demanding that the f.b.i. comply and provide this information we have heard devon newness the chair of the house intelligence committee describing frustration with the department of justice and the f.b.i. saying they're stonewalling and holding back the investigation not providing the information that is needed by hiding from congress i'm from the american people documente

house of intelligence the u.s. house intelligence committee sorry says the agency needs to explain why it dropped a key agent in the so-called russia investigation with more on this from new york is kind of. well the u.s. lawmakers on the house intelligence committee want information from the f.b.i. and if they don't get it there could be criminal charges for contempt now at this point what the committee wants to find out is why top f.b.i. investigator who was looking into trump and the allegations of russian collusion and such they want to know why he was fired now reports seem to indicate that he was fired for an anti trump an anti republican bias that can committee has set monday as the day that they want to know they want testimony and they want answers from the f.b.i. this is devon noone is the chair of the house intelligence committee explaining their frustration by hiding from congress i'm from the american people documented political bias by. investigates both the russian collusion probe the clinton investigation the f.b.i. and the do

lawmakers on the house intelligence committee want information from the f.b.i. and if they don't get it there could be criminal charges for contempt now at this point what the committee wants to find out is why top f.b.i. investigator who was looking into tromp in the allegations of russian collusion and such they want to know why he was fired now reports seem to indicate that he was fired for an anti trump an anti republican bias that can committee has set monday as the day that they want to know they want testimony and they want answers from the f.b.i. this is devon noone is the chair of the house intelligence committee explaining their frustration by hiding from congress from the american people who documented. investigates both the russian collusion probe. investigation being the deadline it appears that legal action could be taken against the department of justice and the f.b.i. now republicans are pointing to peter strock and his possible bias as proof that the investigation into russia and donald trump may be politically motivated from the beginning now in

alice stew to tell the house intelligence committee about conversations he had with his father over the now infamous president trump tower meeting. >> senatorial franken expected to make an announcement this morning. >> firefighters racing against time in california. all of los angeles county under extreme fire danger warning. good morning everyone welcome to "early start." . >> good morning. it's thursday december 7. 1:00 in california. up first, eight grueling hours of testimony from donald trump jr., but it's what the president's son refusing to tell house members that is what's getting all the attention. the main focus of wednesday's close the door session, a june 2016 meeting at trump tower between don jr. and a russian lawyer designed to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> house spregters pressed him about his father's knowledge of that meeting but he refused to tell them what he and his dad discussed citing attorney/client privilege. president trump did participate crafting his son's initial response toe reports of that meeting. that statement turned out to be misleading suggesting i

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going to keep revealing additional evidence, additional facts, so i really hope that the house committee on intelligence does not shut down. >> there is a lot of concern, including adam schiff, your california colleague, who is the ranking democrat on that committee, because nothing so far is scheduled for next year. they're wrapping things up right now. let's see what happens on that front. does your committee, congressman, the judiciary committee, want to interview rowena graff as well? >> i would be happy to interview her. i do know that we did have a confidential interview of andrew mccabe yesterday with the fbi and i would be happy for he came back in an open public hearing because i think america would like to know what he said. >> because cnn has learned that andrew mccabe, the deputy director of the fbi, is one of the people who were briefed contemporaneously by the fired fbi director james comey after his conversations with president trump. you're on that judiciary committee. as you correctly point out, mccabe appeared there this week. he appeared before other committees behind closed doris as

met with the house intelligence committee about conversations with james comey, his former boss, fbi director when andy mccabe was deputy as he is now. what he told the house intelligence committee was that james comey did tell him about these conversations with president trump. as you recall, comey has testified under oath he had multiple conversations with the president. asked for loyalty, asked him to pledge loyalty, suggested he back off friend and fired national security adviser michael flynn. what we're told from multiple sources with direct knowledge of mccabe's testimony, he confirmed that comey told him this directly. when comey testified before the senate intelligence committee he said he told senior leadership about it, not mccabe. first time we're hearing that mccabe could be contemporary witness disputing the president's account if special counsel robert mueller decides to look into this fully, the firing of james comey, perhaps asking mccabe his impression of what happened, according to mccabe, comey told him about this at the time. could be contemporary witness. >> what

sources tell manu raju that mccabe testified before the house intelligence committee that comey told t the conversations he had with the president after the conversations occurred. let's go to the white house right now. cnn's jeff zelleny is standing by right now. reporting on mccabe and comey, any reaction from the white house tonight? >> reporter: there is no reaction on this new reporting from the white house tonight. i've reached out to several officials here at the white house to ask them directly about this loyalty pledge, of course, and the fact that it seems to be backing this original story up, and we've not gotten a response. at the time though wolf, white house defended that private meeting saying that the president asked for pledges of loyalty and expects it from a lot of people who work for him. but of course this was so much different because this was the fbi director. but on the new reporting, there is no reaction yet from the white house. >> also new cnn polling about the president's and robert mueller's handling of the russia investigation. tell us about that. >> repo

letter quote, democrats are deeply concerned by the majority's efforts to curtail the house intelligence committee investigation and its failure to address russia's meddling in the election. we expect that you h take urgent action to ensure this investigation can continue and justice can be pursued

refusing to tell the house intelligence committee about conversations he had with his father over that now infamous trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. >> democrat senator al-franken expected to make a big announcement this morning. dozens urging him to resign. >> firefighters in southern california racing against time and intense winds as all of l.a. county is under an extreme fire danger warning. good morning. >> some say the worst wind danger they've ever seen in terms of wildfires it is thursday, december 7, 5:00 a.m. in the east. live in california in a few minutes. >> up first eight grueling hours of testimony from donald trump jr. its awhat he refused to held house members is what's getting all the attention. the main focus of the close the door session, a june 2016 meeting at trump tower between don jr., jared kushner, paul manafort and a russian lawyer designed to get dirt on hillary clinton. >> how investigators press the trump jr. with his father's knowledge of that meeting but refused to tell what he and his dad discuss the sighting attorney/client privilege. presi

the chairman of the house intelligence committee who is under house ethics investigation, devin nunesas not been cleared by the ethics committee and he was asked by our capitol hill producer whether or not that meant he was back in charge of this russia investigation. he said "i'm in charge. i was always in charge." we look forward to hearing more as he moves into the center spot on the russia investigation as far as the house intelligence committee goes. no doubt he will want to pursue the questions of the dossier and whether or not there was a connection between the fbi, the doj, all of the questions that have been raised. that's the latest on devin nune nunes. the middle east is on edge this evening. palestinians clash with troops with news that president trump is looking to relocate to israel and recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel. the state department issuing a travel warning for the region. we will inventor lie with the white house tonight with this story. >> the reaction to this continues to be as split as the middle east. the white house really reveling in their supp

he's on the house intelligence committee. n, yesterday your colleague, the top democrat on your committee, congressman adam schiff, joined me here in "the situation room" and he explained his deep fears that republicans will shut down your committee's entire investigation into the russia probe and eventually take aim at the special counsel's investigation as well. do you share those fears? >> i do. and those are two separate things. you know, as adam i think probably told you on monday, we have three witness depositions scheduled in such a way that the various investigators will be spread thin across three different interviews. many of the interviews or some of the interviews have been conducted without our having the documents that we have requested. there have -- there are probably ten-plus witnesses that we've requested to speak to, people who would potentially have knowledge of the topics we're investigating that have not yet been scheduled. yeah, i'm terribly concerned. in concert with the president, not just the presiden

intelligence committee, senator. let me get your reaction to what we just heard about andrew mccabe telling the house intelligence committee was fired by the president, had shared those sensitive words with him. what's your reaction to that? >> well, i'm not sure i know exactly the context that that discussion was held in, but we did have an open hearing on this. the former director said that he was asked for loyalty. then said he pledged loyalty at some level. it just sounded like on both sides of that conversation, it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me but nobody -- i don't know that anybody is disputing that. i do know that mr. comey, three separate times, told the president he wasn't under investigation and on none of those times had the president asked him if he was. so here's the director of the fbi volunteering to the president-elect and then the new president on three different occasions, by the way, sir, you're not under investigation. i don't know why that was part of that discussion either. but, you know, the senate intelligence committee's work has not been as much to look at the fbi as to look at russian

donald trump junior is on capitol hill meeting with investigators for the house intelligence committee at this moment. what will he tell them about contacts with the russians? jonathan turley will tell us about the legal implications for the white house and the new revelations about clinton bias at the f.b.i. >> bill: in a moment president trump working overtime to push the tax bill over the finish line. if so, what does it look like? what will he get? and what will republicans get? and ultimately is the deadline by christmas going to happen? that's coming up next. >> president trump: could have gone directly for a vote and we decided let's put it into the conference and come out with something where everything is perfecto and that's what we're going to do. this group of wonderful republican senators is here to discuss the tax bill. >> bill: 15 past the hour. keeping a watchful high on capitol hill. donald trump junior testifying at the moment before the house intelligence committee. the president's eldest son facing a number of questions dealing with the russia matter in a closed-door

refusing to tell the house intelligence committee about conversations he had with his father over that now infamous trump tower meeting with the russian lawyer. >> democrat senator al-franken expected to make a big announcement this morning. dozens urging him to resign. >> firefighters in southern california racing against time and intense winds as all of l.a. county is under an extreme fire danger warning. good morning. >> some say the worst wind danger they've ever seen in terms of wildfires it is thursday, december 7, 5:00 a.m. in the east. live in california in a few minutes. >> up first eight grueling hours of testimony from donald trump jr. its awhat he refused to held house members is what's getting all the attention. the main focus of the close the door session, a june 2016 meeting at

and i actually think the roles of the senate intelligence committee and the house intelligence committee are contributing to this, irrespective of the varying degrees of enthusiasm. but i think one thing is really important to say here, wolf. and that is, we shouldn't paint all republicans with the same brush. there are some who are deeply concerned about our country and the health of our civic well-being, as a consequence of russian interference. and so they're not all alike. >> congressman, stand by. there's more breaking news i want to review with you. we'll take a quick break, resume the interview right after this. this is electricity. ♪ this is a power plant. this is tim barckholtz. that's me! this is something he is researching at exxonmobil: using fuel cells to capture carbon emissions at power plants. this is the potential. reducing co2 emissions by up to 90%... while also producing more power. this could be big. energy lives here. >>> we're back with the house intelligence committee member, denny heck. we're following the breaking news on the russia investigation, including a ne

committees in the house. eight hours before the house intelligence committee on tuesday and another nine hour just yesterday beforethe judiciary committee and the oversight committee. now, what is interesting about what we have learned about the intelligence committee meeting is that he said he's been able to be asked for a loyalty pledge from donald trump. that is not necessarily surprising, but we have narrowly focused on the hillary clinton server and how the fbi handled that investigation. that's a symbol of how republicans are taking the russia question and branching it into other areas to take their ball off the eye of russia, but how significant do you see these developments being? >> it is interesting to watch with the investigation into congress and the fbi investigation and the politics of it. they are making mixed messages out there. they are sending out or having sent out in their name a lot of defense on, for example, the propriety of getting all the perfect legal access to those e-mails, but the legal strategy is to say, well, if they are determining a political defense, i don't know what that could

i'll ask the ranking democrat on the house intelligence committee adam schiff. >>> ryan to leave? the house speaker is doing soul searching about his political future. we're learning more about paul ryan's thinking and the president's concerns that he might call it quits. >>> and russian jets intercepted. u.s. fighter jets send a warning to moscow's planes in a new confrontation over a war zone. >>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> breaking tonight, growing doubts about whether the president and the republicans have the votes to pass the newest version of their tax reform bill. gop senator marco rubio indicating that he will vote against the bill unless the child tax credit is expanded further. republicans can't afford to lose more than two votes in the senate. concerns that senator john mccain may not be well enough to cast a vote. he was hospitalized this week as he battles brain cancer and senate sources describe him as increasingly frail. tonight, president trump says he's still optim

today spent eight hours testifying on capitol hill to the house intelligence committee. on't know what he told the committee behind closed of that trump jr. testimony will ever be released. but already democrats who were inside that room today for the testimony are claiming that mr. trump jr. not willing to discuss conversations between him and his father when the president drafted the initial misleading statement aboard air force one to describe the june 2016 trump tower meeting by his son, son-in-law and campaign chairman along with a ga zillion russians. whether donald trump jr.'s unwillingness to answer the questions about that, whether that bothered members of the committee at all, well, that depends on which one you asked. >> do you feel like he was able to answer all the questions about the trump tower meeting, his communications with his father -- >> as i said, my answer's no different. he answered the questions. >> when he answered the question, in detail or -- >> he answered the question. he answered our questions. >> as to this very central conversation between

mainly staff of the house intelligence committee.has caused some concerns among democrats on the committee. they wanted her to come to washington and to interview her personally, but the republicans wanted to get this done at the end of this week. that's why they went up to new york. staff mens interviewing her today, jake. >> more to come on that interview. thank you so much. don't go anywhere. we've got a lot going on. >>> strong and insulting words about the united states from russian president vladimir putin. this is the same putin who reportedly had a friendly phone call with the president just last week. stay with us. it's all pop-culture trivia, but it gets pretty intense. -ahh. -the new guy. -whoa, he looks -- -he looks exactly like me. -no. -separated at birth much? we should switch name tags, and no one would know who was who. jamie, you seriously think you look like him? uh, i'm pretty good with comparisons. like how progressive helps people save money by comparing rates, even if we're not the lowest. even if we're not the

appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all right, we have a member of the house intelligence committee on deck with us. >>> if president trump is under scrutiny for obstruction of justice, as has been reported due to his reported pressure on the fbi and fbi director james comey to end the fbi investigation into mike flynn, if that report, that the president is under scrutiny by the special counsel for potential obstruction of justice in that matter, if that report is true, then today and tonight have brought two new important developments in terms of our understanding of the potential liability on obstruction of justice issues. first is this brand new "new york times" article that just posted tonight, quoting multiple u.s. senators, describing the president's efforts multiple times to pressure them into ending the congressional investigations of the russia matter, particularly trying to get them to end the senate intelligence inquiry into the russia matter. this has just come out tonight from "the new york times." that follows what happened today behind closed doors in the house intelligence c

meeting with the house intelligence committee. lawmakers expected to ask him about his communications with russia before the election. and some democrats turning on al franken after another woman accused him of inappropriate behavior. more than two dozen senators telling him to step down. senator franken promising an announcement. in alabama, the republican senate candidate roy moore also facing new backlash from senators in his own party. the president is still standing by him with days until the special election. and flames are destroying tens of thousands of acres in southern california right now. homes and businesses burning to the ground. the worst december fires ever recorded in los angeles. news is breaking from coast to coast and around the world. so let's get to it. first from the fox news deck this afternoon, president trump today reversed decades of u.s. policy. he defied warnings of widespread demonstrations and violence and concerns of world leaders to side with our ally, israel. this afternoon from the white house, h

i'll talk to the top democrat on the house intelligence committee congressman adam schiff.hes lessons to stanley... and that's kind of it right now. but rodney knew just what to do...he got quickbooks. it organizes all his accounts, so he knows where he stands in an instant. ahhh...that's a profit. which gave him the idea to spend a little cash on some brilliant marketing! ha, clever. wow, look at all these new students! way to grow, rodney! know where you stand instantly. visit quickbooks.com. when you think of saving money, what comes to mind? your next getaway? connecting with family and friends? a big night out? or maybe your everyday shopping. whatever it is, aarp member advantages can help save you time and money along the way. so when you get there, you can enjoy it all the more. for less. surround yourself with savings at aarpadvantages.com >>> happening now, breaking news, not enough votes. president trump's hopes for passing tax reform in new jeopardy tonight as his former campaign rival marco rubio says he's against the current version of the plan. we're followin

he's now under investigation by the house ethics committee for potentially having disclosed classified information. that was the house intelligence committee. then it went to the house oversight committee. they decided they'd look into a very specific part of it. they'd look specifically into mike flynn's payments from foreign sources. and despite their very narrow focus on just that piece of it, the house oversight committee appears to have stumbled on to something unexpectedly rich. their inquiries turned up the news that mike flynn had apparently not disclosed his foreign payments from russia even though he had been told explicitly and in wting that he needed to do that. the department of defense inspector general's office announced that they had start add independent investigation of mike flynn. the white house remarkably -- remarkably refused to hand over any documents to the house oversight committee about mike flynn. they would not hand over a single document, a single piece of paper about mike flynn. and that's a -- an important stonewall there. and the democrats on that committee reacted the way you'd expect. they were n

the republican chairman of the house intelligent committee is drawing a line in the stand in the gop battle with the justice department and the fbi over allegations of an anti-trump and pro-clinton bias in their probes. in a scathing letter addressed to the department attorney general who appointed special counsel robert mueller. nunes gave the doj a deadline of nexted with to turn over key documents on the russian investigation. they were sought in subpoenas should in august. he ripped the department for delays and says it's part of a broader pattern of behavior that can no longer be tolerated. also breaking news in a growing crisis in korea. chinese ships were observed by u.s. spy satellites offloading oil to north korea in open defiance of the u.n. sanctions. president trump tweeted: now late tonight. in an interview with the "new york times," just posted moments ago to their website. the president admitted he's been soft on trade with china. he hoped that beijing would pressure north korea to abandon nuclear weapons. now he says his patience is simply running out. trump said oil

constitution is going to hear loud and clear from the american people. >> you sit on the house intelligence committeeat can you tell us about deputy fbi director mccabe's testimony before your committee meeting? what came out of that? >> i can't obviously speak about the classified interview that took place, i can just tell you that i believe that the fbi acting director was very forthcoming, willing to answer virtually all of our questions with the exception of a couple and i think that his testimony is very helpful to the investigation. >> adam schiff is saying he's worried republicans will try to shut down the house intelligence investigation by the end of the month. is that something you see? >> we're very concerned about that. these interviews have stepped up in their pace, two or three on the same day. i have been in the intelligence committee offices all day long today and it is a pace that you can't keep and also i think do a good job. >>> congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >>> up next, the president on twitter today calling "the washington post" fake news. what

he told the house intelligence committee that he would not answer questions about communications with his father. and claimed attorney/client privilege because his attorney was enveloped in those conversations. the trouble with that is the privilege evaporates, disappears when someone participates in the conversation who is not a lawyer or one of the team of lawyers. you allow a friend, you allow your girlfriend, your brother to participate or hear that conversation -- attorney/client privilege is gone and so donald trump jr. just invented a privilege today. the trump privilege. but that didn't save him from answering many other questions today and what turned out to be eight hours of testimony to the house intelligence committee in a closed door session. yesterday nbc news reported according to russian lawyer donald trump jr. solicited dirt on the clinton foundation in the meeting at trump tower in the presidential campaign. congressman adam schiff on the intelligence committee spoke with reporters after donald trump jr.'s eight hours of testimony today and revealed that he refused t

will be on the hot seat, not about whether he served, but members from the house intelligence committee. what vice president pens knew about michael flynn's contacts about russia that that meeting that don jr. was so anxious to have. jeff zeleny is live at the white house with more. >> reporter: in a few hours's time, the house intelligence committee will be the place where lawmakers for the first time can ask donald trump jr.'s, the president's oldest son, questions about the russia investigation. particularly back in june 2016 at the trump tower. those questions this morning are raising new questions if he will face part of the mueller investigation in the weeks to come. new questions about how or whether vice president pence could have remained in the dark over michael flynn's talks with the russian ambassador. it is causing anxiety within the president's inner circle, that he will eventually be called for an interview with special counsel. court documents unsealed last week show several trump advisers talked about his calls with sergey kislyak over u.s. sanctions even as pence's aid

even if the house intelligence committees investigation was shut down, that doesn't affect mueller. mueller's investigation will continue -- >> right. >> -- as a criminal investigation, and i am not sure it would be such a bad thing. i honestly can't figure out what value the house intelligence committee's investigation, quote, unquote -- there are people on there that are commendable, but you have this whole thing, devin nunez and others doing their private thing. it's really confusing a lot of the issues, i think, and not providing clarity for the american public which would be the goal of it. we do know there's another senate intelligence committee that is going more on track, so i don't know even if they did shut that down it would be necessarily a huge loss. >> i think those committees, as manu would say, would beg to differ. have a good holiday. >>> and benjamin netanyahu reacts to the united nations on president trump's israel move. >> we're now talking to several countries who are seriously considering now saying exactly the same thing as the united states, and moving their

we want her to come before the house intelligence committee. i think that's going to be very important. but yes, it seems hard to escape the conclusion that if she said to the senate i'm not aware of these conversations and she was one of those sernior transition officials and those e-mails if they're accurate that have been publicly released, it certainly appears that was a directly false representation to the senate. >> now that president trump has seemed to confirm that he knew michael flynn had lied to the fbi or had reason to believe he lied to the fbi when he asked former fbi director comey to drop the investigation into him, in your view, does that amount to obstruction of justice and do you believe the president can be charged with obstruction of justice? >> it's certainly evidence that goes to obstruction of justice, and yes, i believe the president is no more above the law than any other american. it would be an absurd result to say that the president could interfe interfere with investigations involving himself or others potentially

he's a member of the house intelligence committee and he joins us now from capitol hill.e we walking with all of this news coming out of the bob mueller probe? rep. swalwell: good afternoon. clear steering -- we are seeing a series investigation by bob mueller and his team. i hope that inspires us in the house for the intelligence committee to conduct an investigation that is just as serious and complete knowing that witnesses, as general flynn did, are willing to lie to protect the president. our investigation is one where the witnesses come involuntarily and are not be required to turn over relevant documents and we are not subpoenaing's third parties they can help confront them. we are to tell the american people what happened in the last election. who worked with russia and what reforms we can put in place so we are never in a mess like this again. i hope this is a reset and a new inspiration for us to do it in a bipartisan way. kevin: let me follow up on that. there has been some bipartisan policy proposals regarding how to prevent this from happening again. tell me

is facing questions from the house intelligence committee.nd their investigations of russia's meddling in the 2016 election, and of course, possible collusion when it comes to the trump campaign. this is just as the top democrat on the senate judiciary committee is now joining the call to subpoena that very same donald trump jr. to get him before their panel. and, there is movement on the special counsel's investigation, as well. deputy campaign aide, rick gates, may be