let's bring in our justice correspondent jessica schneider. jessica, the deputy attorney general stood his ground today during extensive questioning up on capitol hill. >> he did, wolf. rod rosenstein, he offered a full throated defense of his pick to leaded the russia probe. it was a contentious hearing at times where rosenstein was unwavering in his support of the special counsel. >> reporter: president trump's deputy attorney general rod rosenstein found himself taking incoming fire from members of the president's party today, defending the russia investigation and special counsel robert mueller, who he appointed, from republican charges of bias. >> i think it would be very difficult, congressman, for anybody to find someone better qualified for this job. director mueller has throughout his lifetime been a dedicated and respected and heroic public servant. i believe he was an ideal choice for this task. >> this is unbelievable. and i'm here to tell you, mr. rosenstein, i think the public's trust in this whole thing is gone. >> reporter: unde

our justice correspondent jessica schneider is joining us right now.st time we heard from christopher wray, the new fbi director, since the president's very, very bitter accusations against the fbi. >> right. the first time christopher wray speaking in public amid all of the criticism coming from the president and also coming from republican lawmakers. director wray pushed back against calls of bias and botched investigations. >> the fbi that i see is people, decent people committed to the highest principles of integrity and professionalism and respect. >> reporter: tonight, christopher wray is defending his agency in public for the first time since the president slammed the bureau claiming its reputation is in, quote, tatters, the worst in history. when wray was asked to respond, he deflected choosing instead to praise the people who work at the fbi. >> there are no shortage of opinions out there but i can tell you that the fbi that i see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and working their tails off. >> the day after the president's tweet, t

jessica schneider, cnn, washington. >>> well, california's modesto bee said that jameson's attorney hasied the allegations contained in the affidavit. >>> well, potentially dangerous travel conditions this holiday weekend for millions of americans. >> let's bring in cnn's meteorologist allison chinchar. any idea who is seeing the worst of it and when? >> right now, it would be the area around boston, they're actually getting straight ice. not only when you're talking air travel but definitely on the roads. here you can see the purple color, user got purple and pink indicating ice and wintery mix. you've got a lot of rain searching through cincinnati and the snow that's behind that. this system is going to continue to push offer to the east as we go through the rest of the day, cities like new york, washington, d.c., boston, pittsburgh, these are all going to be cities impacted by this. so what does that mean in terms of your actual travel plans. we take a look at what we've got in terms of potential delays throughout the day. as we talked a lot of cities under that risk. boston, rfq, st

jessica schneider, cnn, new york. >>> in melbourne, australia, a man accused of plowing his suv into a group of pedestrians on thursday has been charged with 18 counts of attempted murder. the 32-year-old suspect is facing uncount of endangering life. police say he has a history of mental illness and drug use. police say the suspect deliberately drove into that busy street injuring 18 people. several remain in critical condition. >>> ukraine is set to get powerful new weapons in its conflict with russian-backed separatists. a senior u.s. official says washington will give the country ant anti-tank weapons. ukraine has fought to fight separatist armored vehicles. and the u.s. has said that russia is supplying those vehicles. providing anti-tank weapons to ukraine is not likely to sit well with moscow. in fact, the kremlin has grown increasingly concerned with relations with the united states under the trump administration. cnn's fred pleitgen explains why. >> reporter: after heaping praise on president trump for days tonight speaking to his generals, russian president vladimir putin i

jessica schneider, cnn, new york. >> jessica, thank you. >>> the pulse nightclub massacre in orlando,da, from just a year ago, the widow of the shooter now says that statements that she gave to investigators should not be used at her trial. she's accused of providing material support to foreign terrorists and obstruction of justice. investigators say the statements she made after the attack indicated she knew what her husband planned to do but authorities told the court friday those statements were obtained unlawfully. he killed 49 people in june of 2016. >>> still ahead here on "cnn newsroom," cnn's exclusive interview with the prime minister of israel, benjamin netanyahu. how israel sees its relationship with the world changing for the better. >>> plus, the death toll continues to rise in the southern philippines, as a strong tropical storm dumps torrential rain. weav the very latest ahead. you're watching "cnn newsroom" live from atlant georgia, this hour. simulcast both in cnn usa here in the states and cnn international worldwide. stay with us. david. what's going on? oh hey! ♪ t

. >> cnn's justice correspondent jessica schneider is with me now.only a fraction, i suppose, of their goal to shrink the epa, but we are talking about scientists, you know, leaving en masse. why? tell me more. >> reporter: well, you know, brooke, as you heard there from the president, this is all part of that broader goal from the administration to drain the swamp. it was back in april when epa officials put out a memo saying it did plan to streamline its workforce through buyouts and that, of course, was after the president issued an executive order aimed at cutting back agencies all across the board. the report here from "the new york times" reports 700 people have left the epa since president trump took office and that number includes more than 200 scientists. so the problem it appears that these scientists are actually not being replaced. according to the report, of the 129 people hired at the epa this year, just seven, brooke, were scientists. it's the scientists that really have the knowledge to best protect the nation's air and water. so here

cnn's jessica schneider reports. >> reporter: the fbi has thwarted a plot that targeted san francisco authorities say everett james son was planning an attack on pier 39 in san francisco sometime over this christmas holiday and the fbi agents who were tracking him online say he was modeling his planned attack over the past few years, including san bernardino and, most recently, in new york city. in fact, he voiced his support for that truck attack on october 31st when eight people were killed on a bike path and then the complaint says that he recently became a tow truck driver in his hometown of modesto, california, leading to concerns that he could have replicated that same type of attack in new york city. authorities found a letter inside his home under a search warrant this week. the letter said things like, you all brought this upon yourself and you've allowed donald j. trump to give away al quds to the jews and we've penetrated and infiltrated your disgusting country. officials have been warning about this danger of a possible uptick in isis-inspired attacks right here in the u.s

our justice correspondent jessica schneider has the latest on court filings in the case and, jessica, you're also getting some breaking news about another trump campaign aide, now the white house communications director hope hicks. tell our viewers what you're learning. >> reporter: well, wolf, tonight, new pieces of information about hope hicks, the current white house communications director. right now according to "the new york times," we understand that hope hicks has finally been interviewed by the special counsel robert mueller's team. we know that that interview happened either thursday or today. of course hope hicks has been of extreme interest to the special counsel. of course she's been at president trump's side for all of the campaign. she's been with the trump organization before that. and, of course, now most recently she's been the communications director. we know the special counsel has interest in her because she was on board air force one when that statement was drafted explaining what that meeting about the meeting at trump tower with donald trump jr. and the russian

with us our justice correspondent jessica schneider. good morning. >> good morning, poppy and john.have learned that paul manafort has left the courtroom. rick gates still inside. all part of this status hearing. we're waiting for updates as to what has transpired inside the courtroom. the flashpoint and focal point of this hearing has been both the bail conditions for both of these defendants as well as an op-ed involving paul manafort. prosecutors last week discovered manafort had been involved in an op-ed in a kiev language newspaper in ukraine, spoke favorably of paul manafort. prosecutors say this is problematic for two reasons. they claim that this op-ed and paul manafort's involvement in it, violated the gag order that was imposed by the judge several weeks ago prohibiting all parties from speaking out in any way that might prejudice this case. secondly, prosecutors say that because of that, paul manafort's restrictive bail that places him under house arrest it should remain in place. now what's interesting about this, is before the op-ed was discovered, both parties had repo

>> jessica schneider, thank you.e now is michael zeldin and ken cuccinelli, former virginia attorney general. did he seem comfortable despite saying there's no good cause to remove him? >> yes. it seemed to me that one of the more important conversations he had was they asked him, was he in communication with mueller and he said yes, that they were coordinating and discussing the matter with him. he wouldn't answer whether his mandate had been expanded but that rosenstein felt that mueller was acting within the scope of the overview that he had given to him and that he was comfortable with it and that he felt that he was operating with a team that was devoid of the type of bias that the republican members of congress were accusing him of. so in some sense, rosenstein supported mueller without hesitation and said that he is in regular contact with mueller and overseeing mueller so there's no sense that this is a ren gate, runaway special prosecutor without oversight. >> ken, do you agree with rosenstein's assessment,

our justice correspondent jessica schneider is working the story for us. jessica, if the president knew flynn misled the fbi when he asked then director comey to drop his fbi investigation, it raises serious questions about obstruction of justice. >> reporter: it does, wolf. it's the timeline here that is once again bringing those obstruction questions to the forefront. a source says the president was told in late january that michael flynn likely lied to the fbi. well, two weeks later, right after flynn was fired, then fbi director james comey says the president asked him to drop the investigation into flynn. tonight, a source tells cnn that president trump was told in january by the white house counsel that he believed national security adviser michael flynn misled not just the vice president but also the fbi about conversations flynn had with russia's ambassador and recommended to the president that he fire michael flynn. white house counsel don mcgahn did not say flynn had broken the law or that he was under investigation. mcgahn made the recommendation

cnn's justice correspondent jessica schneider is here with the latest on that.e know that senior fbi officials cautioned hope hicks about several introductory e-mails that she received after the election, they were from russian government e-mail addresses. so fbi agents met with hope hicks twice at the beginning of this year inside the situation room at the white house and they told her these e-mails were not what they seemed and they may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. that's all according to "the new york times." so, anderson, this was a very specific warning, and it shows that law enforcement was alarmed, that russians were still trying to establish contacts with the trump team even after the election. reportedly hope hicks disclosed the meetings with the fbi to white house counsel don mcgahn and we also know that hope hicks met with the special counsel's team yesterday and today as part of their ongoing russian probe. anderson. >> when it comes to the case against manafort and rick gates, what have you learned? >> reporter: so we have lea

jessica schneider is here with more. let's take through the president's accusations. the dossier being bogus. what's the reality? >> the reality is it is not entirely bogus. it is true that the most salacious allegations have not been verified, however the broad assertion in the dossier that russia waged a campaign to interference in the election in 2016. that is accepted as fact as the u.s. intelligence. it's important to note that the law enforcement and intelligence officials did their own work separate from the doszler to support their findings that russia tried to meddle in favor of trump. cnn reported earlier this year that other aspects of the dossier and other communications like other russians actually did take place. the fbi last year used the dossier as part of the justification to win approval to monitor former campaign associate carter page. sources say the dossier was cited to monitor page, but it continues to be a subject of intense interest and criticism from the president as well as republicans. >> let's take another part of his tweet. the president c

>> thank you very much for the reporting, jessica schneider. >>> joining mess notice isser roll lewis, kate lynn, and patrick huey, cnn political analyst. ero errol, let me ask you, you have this investigation, because, of course, peter strzok, who sent some of those message was leading the investigation that they completely exonerated her, but no wrongdoing was found. grassley said, have you taken the steps to determine whether or not the escalation of the russia investigation might have been the result of, in his words, political animus? will rod rosen stein respond with all the details, and do you think it's legitimate? >> it's a fair question to ask. if there's any perception that the investigation is tainted, then that is a problem. to ask the question and couple it, rushing to a conclusion, trying to disability the investigation rather than safeguard it, is an entirely different proposition. what i see coming from capitol hill, though, is much more of the latter than the former. it doesn't seem to be a legitimate question. if senator grassley wants more information, by all means

jessica schneider, cnn, washington. >>> joining me now, the president of the global policy institute.ichael, good to see you once again. >> thank you. >> so the president putting this dossier front and center and trying to discount it as a heap of garbage. i mean, it's kind of undercut by the facts that some of it has been corroborated. does he care about that fact, or is this mainly about speaking to his base? >> you know, they're well known for talking of an alternative universe, alternative facts. mostly the president speaks and is most comfortable speaking to his base. his job is to keep feeding them red meat. he's never been able to expand beyond that base. so the president wants to give them as much red meat as he can, because they're loyalists. if someone is uncovered by mueller, and it's devastating, they're the ones he'll have to go to for his strength in congress. remember, republicans control both houses. to impeach the president, all you need is a majority. you need to keep that majority. in the senate, 2/3 of a vote to convict. so the president is counting votes. i don't

justice correspondent jessica schneider here for giving us more details. a growing number of republicans are alleging bias in the special counsel robert mueller's investigation. >> right, brianna. that's the rallying cry of republicans since the anti-trump messages were disclosed. rod rosenstein faced questioning on that subject when he testified before the house judiciary committee in mid-december. it was then at the pushed back saying political viewpoints aren't the same as political bias and mere viewpoints don't necessarily impact agents' work on investigations all relating to the peter strzok text messages. committee chairman chuck grassley isn't taking that answer alone. he sent a detailed demand to rosenstein asking for extensive records about those text messages including things like when they were sent, exactly what they meant. so that deadline for rosenstein to respond is today. the department of justice spokeswoman tells meese they are working with the senate judiciary committee but declined to comment further. the president has referred to the

jessica schneider is live with more. what can you tell us?er: quite simply, chris, rosenstein was unwaivering throughout this hours-long contentious hearing where republicans alleged political bias. they are pointing to the anti-trump text messages between peter strzok and lisa page. the justice department released hundreds of those messages this week. two from march 2016 at the height of the primary. lisa page, the attorney for the fbi, she said that she said, god, trump is a loathsome human. that's when struck responded, yet he may win. another text from 2016 has struck saying omg, he's an idiot. lisa page responding, he's awful. they were repeatedly brought up with republicans saying a second special counsel should be assigned to investigate. he played a leading role in the hillary clinton e-mail server investigation. but rod rosenstein stood firm saying it is sufficient for now. and then stressed robert mueller himself would not be removed. take a listen. >> have you seen good cause to fire special counsel mueller? >> no. we recognize we

congress it is investigating the database compliance issue and here we have justice correspondent jessica schneiders are deciding to use the legal route to, the court system rather to sue. >> these cities is, philadelphia, new york, and san francisco, they're citing the sutherland springs massacre and say their citizens weren't directly affected but they are worried that the lapses in. the federal reporting system could affect them. the cities in the suit put it this way. they say that they are directly impacted by the defendant's systemic and long-standing failures to report disqualifying disposition convictions because they each rely upon the accuracy and completeness of the ncic database, the national crime information center. these cities say they're not asking for much more than the department of defense to do its job to report to the federal database. in this lawsuit, they're asking for three things saying they want the department of defense to review their procedures, to submit monthly reports to a judge who is seated in alexandria, virginia, and want the department of defense to update the

for more, here's jessica schneider. >> reporter: we've learned that senior fbi officials met with hope hicks earlier this year all to warn her about several introductory emails that she received after the election from russian government e-mail addresses. fbi agents, they met with hope hicks twice inside the situation room at the white house at the beginning of this year. they told her that those emails were not what they seemed, and they may have been part of a russian intelligence operation. all of that, according to reporting from "the new york times." this, it was a very specific warning. it shows that law enforcement was alarmed that the russians were trying to establish contacts with the trump team after the election. now reportedly hope hicks disclosed her meetings with the fbi to white house counsel don mcgann. and hicks met with robert mueller's team thursday and friday as part of the russia probe. and new details in the paul manafort and rick gates case. so far officials have amassed 400,000 documents in their case. that includes financial records and emails, and they've labe

jessica schneider was outside with what happened inside. what are you learning?> reporter: both manafort and gates will be spending the holidays under house arrest, something their lawyers fought vigorously against. the judge once again saying she just needs more information from paul manafort when it comes to the value of his properties and he offered to put up as collateral for bail. when it comes to rick gate, he will have to ask on a case by case basis whether or not he can leave his home. something the judge granted permission for in the past. interestingly enough, paul manafort's attorney talking about trial strategy and he believes it will amount to paul manafort failing to file a few forms and he doesn't believe the other changes including money laundering will stand up. both will be back in court on january 16th. for now under house arrest for the holidays. >> much more to come. thank you. still ahead, more on the breaking news and an attempted terror attack near one of the busiest transit hubs. more with john king right now. >>> thank you, kate and welc

jessica schneider is here joining us. his brother saying about a possible pardon from the president? >> well, that first post deleted after about 15 mincutes, but thn joseph flynn took to twitter again with this. say iing mr. president, i personally believe that a pardon is due to general flynn. given the apparent and obvious illegitimacy of the manner of the so-called crimes he pleaded guilty to were extracted from him. i ask for quick action on this. thank you and keep up the good work. joseph did tell news weick he tweeted that after he tweeted about the dossier being bogus. of course president trump has brushed off questions of a flynn pardon before as he did on the south lawn on december 15th. >> would you consider a pardon for michael flynn? >> i don't want to talk about pardons for michael flynn yet. we'll see what happens. let's see. >> so the president there not exactly dismissing the idea of a pardon and joseph flynn, michael flynn's brother, he has been fairly vocal about his brother's legal battle. in fact, he

. >> cnn's jessica schneider joins us now live from washington.aid? >> this was a speech to a conservative student group in west palm beach, florida. and in it, you heard there donald trump jr. blasted special counsel robert mueller's russia investigation. he attacked the media's coverage of the russia probe. and then he said that the probe itself was part of that rigged system that his father repeatedly referenced during the campaign. now, in addition, trump jr. also echoed a popular conservative rallying cry when he questioned the intentions of people working in law enforcement, specifically the fbi. he was alluding there to the revelations earlier this month that special counsel mueller had removed fbi agent peter strzok from the russia team after an investigation turned up anti-trump messages between strzok and an fbi lawyer during the campaign, but before the probe actually started. now, republicans have pointed to those texts as evidence of bias. trump jr. was echoing that. and then donald trump jr. turned to the fact that he has been quez a

let's go to jessa schneider now who has more on this breaking story and jessica, this whistleblower accountld be the strongest evidence yet. the trump administration was doing something it should not be doing with russia. if this account is true. >> it could be, erin. so this whistleblower, he says michael flynn was texting his business partner from his seat on the stage and that flynn's message with was that u.s. sanctions against russia would be quote, whipped up as one of the administration's first priorities. now this whistleblower says he talked to flynn's business partner moments after that message and that the business associate said it was the best day of his life because of flynn's expressed instructions that the middle east nuclear reactor deal was quote, good to go. now congressman cummings is calling on the chair of the oversight committee to issue subpoenas to get to the bottom of this. >> now this is a crucial whistleblower testimony, right? you know as he, this whistleblower spoke to elijah cummings. there is though some he said he said now between the company and the individ