i was not on the house intelligence committee at the time. i respect both committees but i haven't seen the underlying intelligence with respect to that one finding. >> thank you mister chair. >> thank you senator. >> you touched on point with senator cotton that i think is critically important and the term i used is conclusion shopping. it's in the nature of any executive to want to be told that the intelligence supports whatever policy direction they want to go with. and this is a constant struggle that goes back i don't care whether it's john f. kennedy in vietnam or lyndon johnson in vietnam or george w. bush and weapons of massinstruction . this is a human natureproblem . king said who will rid me of this nelson priest? the president doesn't have to give in order. that's my concern and that's where it worries me that the president apparently has been pressing the intelligence community to find what he wants them to find. the question should be where did the virus come from, not don't you think it came from the lab. you see the distinction

theow volume four confirms intelligence committee -- community assessment. i have no reason to dispute the committee that i serve on, the house intelligence committee's finding, which is a different perspective with regard to that one issue you mentioned. i was not on the committee at that time. irespect both committees, but have not seen the underlying intelligence to tell me why there is a difference of opinion between the two committees. appreciatery much volume four and the work this committee put in. i would reiterate that the most important take away from the findings of both committees is that as russia continues to so beenrd, they have not successful in changing votes or the outcome of elections. we need to remain committed that that does not happen in the future. >> respectfully, to make that kind of assessment and decide how we are going to prevent russia's further interference in 2020, if they have a clear preference for one candidate over another, that would also alter how we counter those efforts. i really hope you will spend the time and look at

when congress comes knocking, intelligence committee or community, must answer. after all, the intelligence community does not appear anywhere in the constitution. intelligence community is a creation of congress, and is congress is not the creation of the intelligence community. it intelligence answers to us and in turn, to the market people. the now acting director, understood that, he is perhaps one of the most transparent government officials and mike tied intent time serving the great people of iowa read this investor, is a breath of fresh air. and mr. john ratcliffe has some big shoes to fill. that is for sure. luckily, he has acting director grenell, example to guide him. and he is short time as acting director has resulted in a number of very important items being declassified it. for example, he an attorney general, declassified dozens of footnotes from the justice department's inspector general report. and it shows how the department of justice and fbi mishandled the last investigation. just to give some highlights of what those previously classified foo

he referred back to the intelligence committee's assessment and the committee's report, neither of which supported john ratcliffe's statement. mister president, you have to ask yourself why would john ratcliffe say something that is obviously, obviously not true? it is because donald trump wants us to believe he didn't benefit from russian interference and that first and foremost is what matters to john ratcliffe. if john ratcliffe is willing to misrepresent intelligence assessments that are already public, that anybody can read for themselves, my take is there's no telling how he would misrepresent intelligence that is still classified. there is every reason to believe his public statements would be designed for one purpose, one purpose only, to make sure donald trump is pleased. neither the congress nor the american people have any reason to trust that john ratcliffe's testimony or other public statements are accurate. my view is this kind of approach taken by the director of national intelligence is a real threat to democracy and the director of national intelligence demonstrates that

. >> the senate intelligence committee considered the texas congressman john ratcliffe to be the next director of national intelligence. since august, the position has been occupied by officials in the absence of a senate-confirmed director. representative ratcliffe was asked about whistleblowers, his view on russian interference, and the origins of the coronavirus as well as his ability to be nonpartisan as the nation's top intel chief. san as the nation's top intel chief. >> this hearing will be a little different. it is perhaps the first congressional hearing held during the extenuating circumstances of a pandemic. we have a sparse crowd and an expanded dais reflective of the committee's adherence to guidelines put forward by the rules committee and attending physician. we thank our members and staff are there patience and understanding as we work through the logistics involved in holding this hearing, which is a critical part of the committee's ongoing oversight of the intelligence community. members will be joining us on a rotating basis throughout the morning. again, this aftern

intelligence products. for those of us that have been on the intel committees prior to what we understood processing raw intelligence was really like because we didn't have finished products. do you commit to the committee that in the rare instances that the committee asks for raw intelligence to better understand the analytical conclusions that have been calm to, that have been determined, that you will provide that raw intelligence for the committee? rep. ratcliffe: i will, as appropriate. caveat in just of the standpoint of within my authority and with due regard for the sources and methods at that time. >> lastly, technological innovation is increasingly happening overseas. i havee-chairman and been incredibly active on the issue of 5g, not because of the jurisdiction of the committee, but because the intelligence committee both in the house and senate is unique in that we see trends before the policy committees do and we also see the tech side of it in a way that would take other committees and jurisdictions months, if not years, to get the same understanding without the degree of clarity that the intelligence

we expect that you'll lead the intelligence committee with integrity. serve as a forceful advocate for the professionals in the united states and ensure the intelligence enterprise operates lawfully, ethically and morally. i can assure you that this continue will continue to conduct vigorous and real-time oversight over the intelligence community, its operations and its activities. we'll ask difficult and probing questions of you and your staff and we expect honest, complete and timely responses. i want to thank you again for being here for your years of service for our country and look forward to your testimony. before i turn to the vice-chairman, i'd like to note the passing of our dear trend tom coburn. he served and was a valuable member of this committee. he cared deeply for this committee, its staff and the men and women of the intelligence community. he understood the importance of their mission and the mission of this committee. his advice, counsel and friendship will sorely be missed and i utilize it, no less than a month and a half ago. some mi

communities since the authorization resolution created the center select committee on intelligence, the senate reserves for other standing committees such as the senate judiciarymi committee independet authority to, quote, study and review any intelligence activities and further, to obtain access to products of the intelligence activities of any department or agency and further quoting when such activity directly affects a matter otherwise within the jurisdiction of such committee. the senate judiciary committee has jurisdiction over all federal courts including the foreign intelligence surveillance court where a lot of intelligence activity takes place. of course all of congress, not just any one committee or senator has the constitutional authority over the intelligence community so in conclusion, please can't congressman and greater intelligence community, remember you were created by statute, but congress was created by the constitution. i won't yield the floor. >> the senator from oregon. >> in a few minutes the senate is going to vote on the nomination of john radcliffe to be

you have to go back to february when richard barr is the chair of the intelligence committee was receiving daily briefing from the intelligence community about the coronavirus. it spread to china, it's spread to the united states. in the beginning of february in an op—ed stating that the response was going to go well very optimistic about how the us was going to handle it. however, on february 13 he began selling his stocks anywhere from 600,000 to more than $1 million of stocks and industries that were going to be particularly affected by the pandemic. things like travel and shipping and restaurants. and then after that he said privately to some people that it looked like the pandemic was going to be as bad as the 1918 influenza pandemic. so the accusation here is that he used the briefing information as chair of the intelligence committee to educate his decision on stock and was able to dump stock in advance of what would be a massive us stock market drop that began at the end of february and stretched into marge. that's a violation of federal law. there's a 2012 law that prevents member

instead of reporting this to the house intelligence committee, brennan provided intelligence that omittedlp hillary clinton when -- and instead claiming that they wanted trump. joining us now, the man who authored that report on foxnews.com, fred fleitz, fred, thanks for being with us. >> good to be here. lou: let's start with, first, the unmasking of flynn and the breadth of those in the obama white house who were involved. your thoughts. >> i'm really stunned. i worked on some legal appropriate unmasking as a cia officer. we have 39 individuals who made 53 requests after the election for the name of general flynn to be unmasked, and as kt mcfarland told you a little while ago, most of them took place in mid december before flynned had made any phone calls to kislyak. it had nothing to do with an inappropriate phone call. it's very clear that flynn was part of a very determined and sophisticated effort to destroy him as part of the obama administration's efforts to wreck the trump presidency. lou: and that, indeed, seems to be the objective throughout, an unerring effort to an unerring,

of witnesses before the house intelligence committee. intelligence committee giving in to direct pressure from the director of national intelligence, richard tremendous can knell. -- grenell. his house intelligence committee releasing 57 transcripts, in fact, to the public. additional material also being made public if, all of it part of the committee's investigation in 2017 and '18 into russia's interference in the 2016 election. and sources are telling fox that not one of the people that the committee interviewed and the transcripts that we will assess, we'll be able to read here shortly, was able to provide any evidence whatsoever of russian collusion with anyone they talked to in that investigation. no one. mike, i apologize for the interruption. go back to you, if we may, and pick up with your thoughts about some of the decisions that the president has before him. we're in close time, if you will here. >> well, lou, the chinese keep assessing how strong the president is. whether they should test him or go ahead and meet their commit

but are you disputing that the stated purpose of the intelligence committee subpoena at issue investigation efforts by foreign entities that employs the political process. >> and related to the financial records that those are irrelevant to that purpose and that the illegitimate purpose by the investigative committee and the intelligence committee. >> taken the relevant question first, even if you accepted it, there was legitimate legislation that could be had that reach the president because what were seeking his presidential finances -- i'm sorry, not presidential finances, were asking for personal tax returns before he became president, there's a very different thing and were not asking him to produce it as some of the subpoenas that congress through history as far back as 1792 have asked for personal papers of the president while being president, this is before he was president, i don't understand, they are not his papers in the sense of, he's not in possession of them, these are to private entities. >> there's a number of issues there, with respect to the custodian issue, this court go

>> i hope i am the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. and if i am the chairman, what i will continue to do is same thing as dennis vice chairman, which is i'm really proud of that committee and i would argue it's the last fully bipartisan functioning committee. it's not got the attention of everyone right now so we came out with our fourth volume on a rush investigation report, still 100% bipartisan. the questions around china, we do in a partisan way. i do believe our intelligence professionals need the support of congress but the duckling as democrats or republicans and neither should we. >> mark, going to let you go back to your tuna melt, and thank you very much for your time and your service. thank you. >> david, thank you. again i want to give shout episode. i know josÉ is going to be on turkeys done remarkable work. i know there's technology leaders around washington. i do hope -- have the ability take with so many people going to some of the toughest times and with so much food anxiety at this point that if we can support that no

act, a provision requiring the intelligence committee -- the intelligence community to report to us on their posture on this threat, how much more needs to be done to deal with this threat. that bill should have been passed in the house, but the senate because of its dysfunction could not get an intel bill passed until late last year. then it finally became law. but it became law too late to really help congress assess how the community was postured before this pandemic. nonetheless, we did get briefings from the intelligence community. we did hold a hearing on it. i think we held a hearing on it the very day verdicts were coming back from the trial. or we actually had a house line hearing that day and we had a committee within a week of that. so we were briefed. i think it is too early to say whether the community did a good job or a poor job in terms of its analysis and reporting on what it was seeing in china. but we are doing a deep dive on the issue right now. we are going through all of our holdings -- what did they brief us in person, in writing, what were they saying, were t

i have not, i respect both committees but have not seen the underlying intelligence, tell me why there is a difference of opinion between the two committees. but again i very much appreciate volume four and work this committee put in and again i would reiterate the most important take away from the findings of both committees is that as russia continues to sow discord, that they've not been successful in changing votes or the outcome of election and we need to remain committed to making sure that that does not happen in the future. >> respectfully to me, to make that kind of assessment and decide how we're going to prevent russia's further interference in 2020, if they have a clear preference for one candidate over another, over another that would also alter how we counter those efforts. i really hope you'll spend the time and look at the underlying intelligence, if you find that you reach a conclusion that is different than the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence community or the unanimous conclusion of this here i would expect a brief on that and pointing out how you found our c

think it's nuts to worry that this might have anything to do with senator burr's role on the intelligence committeepresident's anger at that committee's russia investigation? in any other year of my life, i would never worry about that as a potential motivating force for the justice department doing something as extreme as going after a sitting senator like this. but i do find myself worrying about that now because of bill barr. >> yeah, ordinarily i would say it's a bit farfetched, but i think this is the cost of an attorney general who does things that undermine public trust in the department of justice because it causes skepticism when they do something like this because, you know, what we're hearing today of course is we see richard burr is perhaps the subject or target of an investigation. we have not seen similar evidence of other senators who also sold their stocks. now, i don't know that we would know that. there may have been investigative steps for those other senators. it may not have reached that stage yet, or there may just not be evidence of probable cause for those other senators to

public to honor schiff's previous public statements as well as the republican members of the intelligence committee who have demanded the release for months and months now. as well as a unanimous committee vote back in 2018 to release all of the interviews. director grenell says if schiff won't allow the transcripts to be released, he is, quote, willing to release the transcripts directly from the odni. the office of the director of national intelligence. a house intelligence committee today spokesman accused the dni of being, quote, overtly political. overtly political for releasing the letter that reveals the transcripts are unclassified and now ready. the spokesman dud not, however -- did not, however, characterize adam schiff's public lies and his refusals to release those transcripts that are no longer classifieded. the committee spokesman if also failed to acknowledge that congressman schiff's credibility has been utterly destroyed after he endlessly spun lies about evidence of russian collusion. >> i think there's plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight. there's clear ev

so him giving up his chairmanship of the intelligence committee and the fbi investigation into what he did, that is a very, very dramatic thing. but one of the absolutely unique ways in which our current federal government is so terrible right now is, that as bad as the insider trading allegations are, against senator burr, we also simultaneously have to worry whether the u.s. justice department, under attorney general william barr, might be targeting senator burr for reasons that are less about insider trading and more about convenience to the trump administration. senator burr, you will recall, has led the only functional bipartisan congressional investigation into russia interference in the 2016 election. the findings have supported the intelligence committee's conclusions for example, that russia interfered in the 2016 election to support donald trump's candidacy. that is something donald trump continues to deny as recently as an interview that aired this morning. more to the point though, senator burr's committee is set to release its final report in the russia issue on coming mon

press calls for no one to trust the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff ever again after those who feel that he lied about the trunk brush occlusion investigation. thanks for joining us here on r.t. . let's begin with a regular check on the latest global coronavirus numbers total infections stand above 4700000 vitality surprising 312000 all the number of those who've recovered has risen above 1800000. the united states health care system has been inundated during the pandemic not just with patients but also criticism over the way it has struggled with the crisis now the former head of a key lab working on a vaccine is one congress if the government doesn't make rapid changes things will only get worse our window of opportunity is closing if we fail to improve our response now based on science i fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged there will be likely a resurgence of code 19 this fall and we greatly compound it by the challenges of seasonal influenza without better planning 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history meanwhile donald trump says the cou

feinstein sits on the intelligence committee as well. we'll have much more on that part of the story, ahead at 5:30. >>> a hive look at capitol hill where a whistleblower is warning the u.s. faces quote the darkest windt nerf modern history if the coronavirus rebounds. cbs reporter skylar henry at the white house with dramatic testimony. skylar? >>> hey, good evening to you, well, as expected, the whistleblower in this case, dr. rick bright told a house subcommittee panel this morning that the country needs to have a coordinated national response to this coronavirus pandemic. and that includes securing more ppe. president trump made a trip to pennsylvania this afternoon where he we a manufacturing facility that creates ppe in what he says a mission to shore up the national stockpile. >> the owner of a surgical mask manufacturing company told a house committee the trump administration ignored offers to ramp up production in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. >> we could have together ensue america's mask sup miye. >> the national inst

warner: i hope i am the chairman of the senate intelligence committee. if i am chairman, what i continue to do is same as vice-chairman. i'm really proud of that committee. it's one of the last fully bipartisan, functioning committees. it's not getting the attention of everyone right now, but we came out with the fourth volume of our russia investigation report, still 100% bipartisan. the questions around china in a bipartisan way. i believe our intelligence professionals need the support of congress. they don't go in as democrats or republicans and another should we viewed david: -- should we. david: i'm gonna let you go back to your tuna melt. thank you for your time in service. sen. warner: i know jose is going to be on and i want to give a shout out. he's doing remarkable work. doing washington they are no kid hungry and raising for that. there are so many people going through some of the toughest times. there is so much food anxiety right now, so if we can support no kid hungry and support jose's efforts, those are good things to do. thank you so muc

the house intelligence committee launched one of the first probes into meddling in the 2016 election. >> if the trump campaign or anyone associated with it aided and abetted the russians, it would not only be a serious crime, it would represent one of the most shocking betrayals of democracy and history. >> the committee heard from a parade of witnesses, the investigation form the basic framework of what we now know about foreign meddling in the 2016 campaign. a committee spokesman accused the dni of being overtly political, leaking the letter that the transcripts are ready, the panel was ready to release the transcripts related to misconduct by the trump campaign and the president himself. key house republicans say the transcripts show there was no collusion with russia. so adam schiff released the transcripts that your committee already voted to make public, why won't you let us see that information? >> the senate intelligence committee recently released a bipartisan report backing the intelligence community findings that russia interfered in the 2016 election. democrats tell fox re

emergency, something i feel very strongly about and have worked for as a member of the p intelligence committee, the government can use emergency provisions, collect the information immediately, and settle up with the court later, proving once again, mr. president, that liberty and security aren't mutually exclusive, that smart policies like this type of amendment help to get you both. now a brief explanation of how we got here. right now the government can collect web browsing and internet search history without a warrant under section 215 of the patriot act. section 215 from the beginning has been the most controversial and dangerous provision of the fisa law. that's because it is so extraordinarily broad and so vague. under section 215, the government can collect just about anything so long as the government believes it's relevant to an investigation. this can include the private lives of many innocent law-abiding americans. as i indicated, they don't have to do anything wrong. they don't have to be suspected of anything. they don't have to even have been in contact with anyone suspected of

nadler of new york, and the chair of the intelligence committee, mr. schiff of california, to committees of jurisdiction. it had strong bipartisan support, it went over to the senate. in my view, it was vastly improved in the senate and it had 80 votes. our bill was bipartisan. their bill was bipartisan too. 80 votes in the united states senate for the senate bill, which was amended by the leahy-lee amendment. very, very protective of the balance that we have to have between security and privacy. security and civil liberties. this is the balance that we have to strike. in my years on intelligence, i was focused a lot on the civil liberties part of it, establishing a board, etc., to ensure that whatever we did, that balance with our civil liberties was central and important to it. as benjamin franklin said, security and liberty, you can't have one without the other. they go together. security and liberty. and so now today, this rules committee is presenting that bill, the u.s. freedom re-authorization act, coming back from the senate. again, our bill in

subpoena by the intelligence the subpoenaes from the financial services committee to deutsche bank because specifically intelligence did not want to cause too much of a burden -- chief justice roberts: what about, as you know, very shortly in the second case we will talk about subpoenas from district attorneys, how does that factor in? should those be counted in the balance in terms of when a congressional subpoena becomes harassment? mr. letter: definitely not, since we have nothing to do with the subpoena, we had no contact with the city of new york for that subpoena was issued. so i do not know how that would tell us anything about what the house -- chief justice roberts: what about the senate, i suppose they can issue subpoenas? mr. letter: of course. chief justice roberts: how do you balance that? you have three different committees seeking subpoenas, the district attorney in new york, depending upon party composition of different bodies in the future, you might have the senate joining. how do you measure harassment? mr. letter: i think what you would do is if these were subpoenas fro

now i know you can't tell us as part of the intelligence committee exactly what you've been briefed onwhat should we believe? >> well, i think -- i think what we should believe is what the intelligence community is telling us, and i haven't seen any recent intelligence on this in the last month or so. so, you know, i can't -- if the president and the secretary of state have intelligence on this, then as a member of the intelligence committee i want to see it. i'm entitled to see classified material. there are no limits on that kind of material being shared with the intelligence committees of the congress. so it bothers me that for the president and the secretary of state to assert in such certainty, in fact, i think the president said a high degree of certainty without at least sharing with the intelligence committee on a closed classified basis what the basis of that is. and i -- like i say, i haven't seen it, i can't contradict it accept i'm damn sure going to try to see it over the next week or so. and if we can't get it, then that raises serious questions about the basis of those a

now with the us press calling for no one to trust the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff ever again so in a sense to the right to find out what that has to do with russia. the world is driven by a dream shaped by. saying . we dare to ask. that's right here it's a i r is the ticker symbol for hair it's a closed and finally and you can buy all of the hair. that we feature here on this episode of kaiser report it's currently trading at a market cap of about $3900000000.00 but we're expecting the fed to come in in front run the market and take this up to a much higher capitalization possibly 7 or 9 trillion dollars. back republicans controlling the michigan legislature claimed the state's governor gretchen trump butter authority would stay home orders and other restrictions hundreds of protesters defied the governor's policies outside the state capital calling her a witch and the virus itself. media. was. the protests the capital lansing of being held for 6 weeks already on friday the local prosecutor's office said a man was charged with making credible death threats against

, as the chair of the intelligence city, was receiving daily briefin from the intelligence community -- intelligce committeewas receiving daily briefings from the intelligence community about the threat of the coronavirus to the united states. on february 13, he began selling stocks, anywhere from 600,000 dollars to more than $1 million in stocks and industries that were going tofee severely ed by the pandemic, travel, shipping, restaurants. after that, he said privately to some people that it looked like the pandemic was going to be as bad as the 1918 fluenza pandemic. the accusation is that he used the informationin he was ge as chair of the intelligence committee to educate his decisions on stock and was able totock in advance of what would be a massive u.s. stock market drop that began at the end of february and stretched into march. that is al violation of fede law. a 2012 law prevents members of congress from using nonpublic informaton t benefit or get guidance on their stock actions. host: that is the accusation. he is saying he is -- was using information that was available to the public,ut he was p

is now investigating has stepped down from his position as head of the intelligence committee but one must point out as well that a number of the senators a lot of members of congress as i mentioned have been accused of insider trading the records have shown of suspicious stock movements in january and in february however burris the only one who's publicly being investigated at this particular point it must be pointed out to that birkhead that the senate intelligence committee which recently issued a report backing the intelligence services assessment that russia did involve in the 2016 election that is something that president tried to dismiss as he dismisses as a hoax but that came from the senate intelligence committee of which raymond burr was the sitting leader so certainly president trump has not been particularly satisfied with this particular senator f.b.i. continuing their investigations thanks that that is there as mike hanna. well as have been reporting on employment in the us has risen rapidly through the pandemic the she had to tons of reports thanks loads the people figh

the chair of the senate intelligence committee stepping aside now, a day after an fbi warrant was served to seize his cell phone. senator burr handing over the phone. authorities investigating whether he used inside information to trade stocks before the market collapsed because of the virus. what he told us today. >>> the shooting death of ahmaud arbery, the african-american out jogging. tonight here, the newly obtained 911 call from nearly two weeks before that deadly confrontation, from travis mcmichael, now charged with murder, along with his father. what is said on the call. >>> the other news, the fires spreading, getting closer to homes tonight. evacuations under way at this hour. >>> and the new study out tonight, can you transmit the virus simply by talking to spn? what the new research shows. >>> good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a very busy thursday night. there is so much debate in this country over how to reopen, how fast is too fast? american workers who want to go back, but who want to know they're safe. parents who want their communities back, but wh

>> taking a step back, keep in mind the senate intelligence committee has had a lot of reporting on itsn the russia investigation and verified what the intelligence community has said about russia's attempt to interfere in the election and burr has been a big part of that and it is interesting to see who will be chosen to chair that committee next going into the 2020 election given the issues of the russian election interference and election sbfrps by many other countries, it is going to be front and center. >> chuck, i want you to have to, i don't want you to have to stair into the crystal ball too much but i wonder what your sense of this where it will be going, is stepping down enough, is his senate seat on the line, might this blow over? what are you keeping an eye out for? >> i believe the amounts that were retired in 2022, but there is an interesting thing that happened, in order to get the contents of his cell phone, in order to get the contents of anyone's cell phone, the fbi needed to get a search warrant, and in order to get a search warrant, they had to go to a federal judge,

taking a step back, keeping in mind the senate intelligence committee has put a lot of very credibleng of its own on the rachid redouane investigation. it is basically verified what the intelligence community has been saying about russia's attempt to interfere in the election and burr has been a big part of that. it will be interesting to see who is chose tone lead that committee next going into the 2020 election during which these issues about russian election interference and election interference by many other countries is going to be front and center. >> chuck, i don't want you to have to stare into the crystal ball too much, but i wonder what your sense is of where this might be going. will stepping down from the committee be enough? is his senate seat on the line? will this just blow over? what are you keeping an eye out for? >> i believe he announced that he would retire, joshua, in 2022. but, you know, there is a really interesting thing that happened. in order to get the contents of his cell phone, in order to get the contents of anyone's cell phone, the fbi needed to get a

the head of the senate intelligence committee is stepping down as chairman because of an insider trading investigation richard burr allegedly sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock just before markets plunged on fears of an economic crisis from the coronavirus the f.b.i. sees the burrs phone on wednesday by count as more from washington d.c. he says the highest levels of the justice department would have been behind that the citizen to serve a search warrant on burr. on the 13th of february senator burr made a series of trades some 3 dozen of them amounting to to $1700000.00 the significance of the date is that on the 12th of february the senate intelligence committee received a confidential briefing on the coming pandemic the f.b.i. has been investigating these trades since then and this week have knowledge formerly served the senator with a warrant they have confiscated his phone the significance of this is that it's the highest levels of justice department that would have taken this decision and certainly a judge would have had to being consulted for the warrant most obs