right now intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson on capitol hill testifying. ds himself in the middle of a political fire storm as he briefs the house intelligence committee. this behind closed doors. today is the first time atkinson will brief the panel since the release of the whistle-blower complaint. joining me to cause discuss is mario cord she worked with atkinson in d.c. and doj national security division. currently a senior litigator at georgetown law. >> thanks for taking the time. >> my pleasure. >> soonz you saw he recommended the whistle-blower complaint sent to congress, that you will that's all i needed to know it was legit tell us why. >> i worked with michael at the u.s. attorney office in d.c., responsible for some of the most significant fraud and public corruption investigations. i know him to be careful, meticulous. he doesn't get ahead of himself, doesn't seek the lime light. i knew when he recommended this be brought to the attention of congress, that was because he had done his job, applied the law as he understood it, done some investiga

you just came out of the briefing with the inspector general michael atkinson. give us the highlights, the headlines, what did you learn? >> so the inspector general was very forthcoming. he was very compelling. and he made very clear how he went about corroborating the complaint by the whistle-blower. >> and what can y-- can you tel us about the documents that he handed over to the committee and before you answer i want to remind viewers, michael atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general was appointed to that job by president trump. but what were the documents that he handed over to you? >> it was work product of his interviews with various witnesses. and it was also important to point out that he did this in a two-week period of time as is required under the law. and then waited for the director of national intelligence to give him the go ahead to present this document and the complaint to the committees which of course the dni declined to do and it wasn't until it became public through the media that the president made all of this available to us

>> i think michael atkinson is a man of great integrity. he is the but for actor here.ut for his reporting this to congress, the efforts of the white house and the justice department to cover it up might have been successful. he's extremely thorough. he's extremely credible in my opinion. he provided a very helpful chronology of his own involvement. provided additional documents. i'm not at liberty to say a lot more. but i'm impressed with michael atkinson. >> he supposedly conducted his own investigation of the whistle-blower complaint, you know, within a quick period of time. so it's more of an inquiry. how confident are you on this? >> to determine initial credibility and whether it identifies as emergent. he was stoched in his tracks by a justice department opinion not worth the paper it's written on if you ask me. but an olc opinion that was designed to make him stop to say you don't have jurisdiction. it was a 14-day review as set forth in the whistle-blower complaint to determine credibility and statutory applicability. and with the release of the call memorandum

citing three sources, byron york writes that michael atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligenceommunity wrote that whistleblower had a significant tie with one of the presidential candidates vying to challenge president trump. thank you, byron york. joining us tonight, byron york. chief political correspondents for the "washington examiner." byron, terrific reporting. give me the name of that democratic candidate. >> i don't know. but the story goes back to august 26 when the inspector general of the intelligence community writes this letter that we now have seen. a letter to the director national intelligence. it says the whistleblower who was anonymous, had some indication of an argue iewbl bias. lou: a democrat and work for a democratic presidential candidate. >> a few weeks later we had press reports saying we found out what the bias was. the whistleblower is a registered democrat. there was a lot of commentary about republicans think simple registration in the democratic party is evidence of wrongdoing. but now we found out there is more to the story. inspector general frid

michael cat kin on revealing -- michael atkinson revealing the whistleblower said he or she possessed beth first and second hand information. the i.g. did not say what information the whistleblower had information on. members of the relevanting congressional committees may get a chance to meet with the whistle blower as soon as next week. fox news is being told plans are being made for a possible meeting away from capitol hill to help protect the whistleblower's identity. >> so what are the radical dimms, pelosi, schiff, schumer, left with? right now it appears not much. how should the trump administration deal with a congress unyielding in its efforts, no matter how futile and silly to overthrow president trump. to take that up, we have the senior policy advisor for the president, stephen miller. what a week it has been. let's start with a backdrop for this if i may. suddenly we are hearing from schumer and pelosi and several others that they want to negotiate with the president and are ready to sit down and talk about usmca, gun control, you name it, apparently. they seem to think t

in a statement issued yesterday, michael atkinson said the complainant had direct and access knowledge. the whistleblower had more than firsthand access. and the i.g. found other information supported the complainant's allegations. meantime, president trump made clear he still wants to know the whistleblower's identity. >> mr. president, do you now know who the whistleblower is, sir? >> we're trying to find out about a whistleblower. when you have a whistleblower that reports things that are incorrect. >> the identity of a whistleblower is protected by law. >>> cnn has confirmed that in a recent phone call, president trump pressed australian prime minister, scott morrison, to help bill barr's investigation, into the origins of the russia probe. back in april, barr raised a lot of eyebrows when he testified he believed the trump campaign had been spied on. >> i think that spying did occur. yes, i think spying did occur. the question is whether it was adequately predicated. i'm not suggesting it wasn't adequately predicated. but i need to explore that. >> the white house has released a s

today, michael atkinson will testify to the house panels behind closed doors. >> those text messagesapped a whirlwind day of developments on the impeachment front, the most shocking with president trump already under investigation for secretly asking a foreign government to interfere, he did it again for all the world to see. jim acosta is at the white house. >> reporter: it was a remarkable moment, one for the history books, as president trump stood outside the white house and called for foreign interference in the 2020 election. he asked china to dig up dirt on former vice president joe biden, unlike his conversation with ukraine's president, no call transcript is necessary here, the president said the quiet part out loud. >> china should start an investigation into the bidens. because what happened in china is just about as bad as what happened with -- with ukraine. >> reporter: it has become more difficult for the white house and its defenders to accuse the whistle-blower complaint upon relying on hearsay. david and christine? >> okay, jim acosta, thank you. the president also sa

moment. >> sandra: now to capitol hill awaiting the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson to arrive for a closed door meeting for the house intel committee. we have more on that. >> good morning. the landscape has entirely changed since atkinson was on the hill before the same committee two weeks ago. the whistleblower complaint has been declassified. the white house has released the july 25th phone call and democrats want more information from atkinson about the evidence he used to determine that the whistleblower's complaint was credible. republicans want more information about the procedure, whether it was followed. whether the whistleblower had direct or indirect knowledge of the phone call, and more specifically, they want information about the timeline. now that we have confirmation the whistleblower first reached out to the house-controlled intelligence committee prior to officially filing the complaint. and what we understand from our reporting is that we're now looking at a time frame of late july and early august and that matters because of congressman schiff's p

in a statement issued yesterday, michael atkinson said the complainant had direct and access knowledge. the whistleblower had more than secondhand assertions. and the i.g. found other information supported the complainant's allegations. meantime, president trump made clear he still wants to know the whistleblower's identity. >> mr. president, do you now know who the whistleblower is, sir? >> we're trying to find out about a whistleblower. when you have a whistleblower that reports things that are incorrect. >> the identity of a whistleblower is protected by law. >> they're protecting the process, not the validity of that. >>> if they impeach president trump, mitch mcconnell says his hands will be tied. impeachment trial will be the next step. >> if the senate rule related to impeachment, that could take 67 votes to change. i would have no choice but to take it up. >> the mcconnell comment raises the possibility of a senate impeachment trial just as the presidential primaries and caucuses are set to begin in early 2020. >>> a cnn poll shows americans evenly split about impeachment. and

and i'll tell you, michael atkinson and i overlapped for 10 years from 2006 to 2016.t crimes side, he was on fraud and public corruption side of our practice. you i'll tell you, we have many long-time friends and colleagues in common. i have spoken with all of them recently. they all reinforced what i saw firsthand, which he is a head down, working his cases thoughtfully, ethically, methodically, diligently, and when other people in the office had thorny issues, particularly thorny ethical issues, they're going to walk into michael atkinson's office to try to get the right answer. >> always good to talk to somebody who knows the principles. my thanks to you. a fast-moving forward. appreciate your forbearance with that as well. >>> the supreme court could hear arguments in three places. a major decision on workplace that would affect not just lgbtq but everybody. laverne cox will join me next. larnvee cox will join me next. horsepower... ...is more horsepower. (engines rev) with dodge power dollars buy any challenger, charger, or durango and get ten bucks cash allowanc

what we know about the inspector general, michael atkinson and we'll look ahead to next week's crucial depositions and hearings and an update on bernie sanders's recovery. what we know and what his campaign won't tell us. you are watching "velshi & ruhle," right here on msnbc. wat& ruhle," right here on msnbc. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. seaonly abreva cany to help sget rid of it in...ez!!! ...as little as 2 1/2 days when used at the first sign. abreva starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. abreva acts on it. so you can too. doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacist-recommendeding? memory support brand. you can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. i wish i could shake your hand. granted. only pay f

michael atkinson is his name. he's behind closed doors at this point. atkinson has expressed grave concerns about the whistle-blower complaint. democrats believe he could help make the case for impeachment. >> i believe it's very important for the american people to see how much effort went in to trying to get the money released and to get a meeting with the president. it was all based on whether or not they were going to do an investigation into vice president biden and his son, hunter. >> curt volcker spent 9 1/2 hours behind closed doors with three house committees. fox news obtained the opening 11 pages of volcker's testimony, including page three. at no time was i aware of or took part in an effort to investigate joe biden. as you will see from the texts i'm providing with several different actors, vice president biden was never a topic of discussion. page 4. in addition, i have known former vice president biden for 24 years. the suggestion that he would be influenced in his duties as vice president by money for his son has no credibility to money.

right now the inspector general of the intelligence community, michael atkinson is talking to lawmakers behind closed doors. this comes after a nearly ten-hour interview yesterday with former ambassador that revealed bomb shell texts. and time is up for the trump administration to turn over documents to house democrats. but instead of complying, the white house is sending its own request to speaker pelosi. first, fox news has obtained a written copy of curt volcker's opening testimony in his private interview in front of house lawmakers. sources say that the nearly ten hour hearing was powerful and clear. volcker is a former u.s. special envoy to ukraine and a key player in the whistle-blower complaint. in part of his written statement, he detailed his contacts with the president's personal lawyer, rudy guliani and says that he was concerned that rudy guliani was influencing the president's view on cooperation in ukraine. he writes -- >> shepard: volckers will said this about joe biden. >> shepard: in addition, three house committees released dozens of texts last night between u.s. dipl

they are hearing more president from michael atkinson today. >> ukraine's new chief prosecutor said they will be looking into the link to er biden and there is no evidence of wrongdoing on his part. >>> william barr is looking for access to encrypted information on facebook. it is about preventing child exploittation and other criminal activity, but mark zuckerberg said people have the right to privacy during online conversations. he said facebook is working on better ways to tee deck criminal behavior without reading messages. other bluegrass festival kicked off and this year's security inup. gates opened an hour ago. here is what is different this year. anne. >> reporter: yes. the weather is beautiful. it should be a very fun weekend here, but it will take a little more to get actually inside of the festival. you can see where they are coralling people here. the good news, there is no line at this point in the afternoon, but this is the first year of stepped up security in the festival's 18-year history. >>> hardly strictly blas fans started lining up before dawn. >> trying to get good

michael atkinson so far has not made any statement, has not given any information, exactly the oppositef inspector general michael horowitz. >> jason: this is one of the most sinister and scary things about this, is that our own government officials are using the power of leaking to the media to drive a political narrative against are newly-elected -- at this point, a newly-elected president. i'm glad senators johnson and grassley are on this. but this really is one of the scariest parts of what this deep state has been doing, gregg. >> there were 125 leaks in the first few weeks. one a day by the deep state -- i called them the malignant force, holdovers from obama, against president trump. of course, mccabe was fired for lyingcc about leaks. here you've got peter strzok. that's actually in my book and the other leaks. of course, the most prolific leaker and damaging leaker of all was james comey. who stole government documents and leaked them to the media in order to damage trump and trigger the appointment of his longtime friend, ally, and mentor, bob mueller, who was actually appoin

michael atkinson, the inspector general has been protective of the whistle-blower.e also said that the whistle-blower volunteered being a registered democrat. but we'll await for the end of the session. one republican spoke earlier about the focus of this probe. >> out of everything we'll talk about today and last week, the next two months, this comes down to one thing. comes down to one sentence in one phone call. everything else always comes back to that. >> a short time ago, adam schiff and elliot engle and elijah cummings september a letter to mike pence saying -- >> yesterday kurt volcker spent 9 1/2 hours behind closed doors with three house committees. fox news has obtained the opening 11 pages of his testimony, including page 5. the president was skeptical given the his of corruption. he said the ukraine was full of terrible people. that ride to take me down. in the course of that conversation, he referenced conversations with mayor guliani. >> we have evidence of text messages between state department officials expressing concern as early as may that rudy g

this second whistle-blower has spoken to the inspector general of the intelligence community, michael atkinsonbut legal sources tell nbc news he or she is not filing a separate formal complaint. the existence of a second whistle-blower could undercut pru president trump's complaints. >> president trump has denied that he did anything improper during his call with the president of ukraine, but republicans in the white house have struggled to put out a unified response. trump tweeted last night democrat lawyer is same for both whistle-blowers? all support obama and crooked hillary, witch hunt. the president's personal attorney rudy giuliani weighed in on twitter writing this, surprised democrat lawyer has other secret sources. swamp media will corruptly fail to point out it means nothing now that conversation is public, no money, no liquid qquid pro q. white house press secretary stephanie grisham saying this, it doesn't matter how many people decide to call themselves whistle-blowers about the same telephone call. a call the president already made public. it doesn't change the fact that he has

on friday, the testimony friday just for the record is clear was michael atkinson, and i was in the roomn fact i led the questioning for the first 45 minutes for the republicans, that was thursday. maria: thank you for that i appreciate that. can you tell us about the testimony that you heard on friday, and tell us whatever you can, behind what happened behind closed doors, i'm looking at an article that says testimony from ukraine enjoy curt voelker directly contradicts the democratic impeachment narrative what can you tell us? >> so i would love to tell your viewers about everything about both of those interviews. the reason that i can't is because the person in charge of this investigation, adam schiff, has made the decision that he doesn't want those transcripts to be out there publicly. he made that decision because those transcripts aren't good for the democrats and for the narratives. what i can tell you is that i promise you that the inspector general's testimony on friday will shock you with respect to his investigation into the context between adam schiff and his staff and the

you also have some new reporting about today's closed door testimony by the inspector general, michael atkinson. this is the same guy who deemed the whistle-blower complaint credible and of urgent concern. what has he told lawmakers? >> reporter: what he's telling lawmakers is that essentially he's walking them through the process of how he handled this complaint and how he went about corroborating it. we have now learned from two sources that what was turned over last night were documents related to how the icig went about corroborating that complaint. i think that's one of the key takeaways from today. but sources are telling me this is mostly about process and so far there aren't these big explosive, you know, moments in this hearing but of course it's still ongoing. we'll still keep you posted, brooke, on exactly what comes out of this meeting. >> we know you will. thank you very much. >>> let's get you back to those text messages now and the people involved. former u.s. special envoy kurt volker handed them over to congress. he resigned from his job after the whistle-blower complaint. ther

from the long meeting you had today with the inspector general of the intelligence community michael atkinson. i want to hear what he has to say. you'll stand by and we'll discuss that as well. but let's get to some of the key issues unfolding right now. first of all, tell us more about the documents your committee is seeking from the vice president mike pence. >> well the question, wolf, here is was the vice president a part of this presidential extortion of ukraine? we know the president was tieing a meeting to the white house -- a meeting at the white house and it looks like security assistance to ukraine in exchange for the ukrainians investigating the bidens and exonerating the russians. the vice president had a meeting with the ukrainian president on august 30 in warsaw standing in for the president. the security assistance at that point had not been given to ukrainians. so was he a part of this scheme that the whistle-blower described and the president has confessed to. >> you're also preparing subpoenas for the white house. the president as you know is threatening not to comply until

we are learning more about the intelligence community inspector general, michael atkinson's, closed-door interview in the secured facility behind the on friday. we know is that atkinson told lawmakers he had no first-hand or direct information about the whistleblower's contacts with the democratic-led house intelligence committee staff. the thought whistleblower on the disclosure forms had left those sections about congressional contact blank, and that he knewe had only based on media reporting. what we also learned about atkinson's closed-door interview with lawmakers as he described how he conducted a preliminary investigation into the whistleblower complaint to determine its credibility. he told lawmakers that he interviewed a handful of individuals. we are told four witnesses, including two supervisors, for the whistleblower. and an individual who may or may not be one of the supervisors who had more direct access or even handling of the transcript of that july 25th phone call. over the weekend, the lawyer for the whistleblower confirmed on twitter that a second individual has come f

remember, it is michael atkinson, he is the one who deemed the whistle brother complaint to be urgent and credible. today, just like yesterday, you had members walk in and out of the private room. in some cases they talked to us reporters. mike quigley, a democrat, said this, and he said it off camera, so i am referring to my notes here. he said the inspector general's testimony submits the testimony of how atkinson sought the whistle-blower report. what the i.g. said is he pulled the fire alarm. we have now seen the smoke and the fire. we heard from republican congressman john ratcliffe. he, however, was on camera. take a look at what he had to say. >> chairman schiff should be disqualified from running an investigation where his committee members or staff are fact witnesses about contact with the whistle-blower and the whistle-blower process. >> reporter: all right. so that is a, what, two-day-old republican talking point now. they are trying to make the point because the whistle-blower initially approached the house intelligence committee with the complaint, that that somehow means

capitol hill friday intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson made his second appearance before lawmakers since flagging the whistleblower complaint. >>> you have more and more evidence that the president of the united states was improperly using his office. using our taxpayer dollars to leverage help from an ally in our upcoming 20/20 election. >>> after atkinson seven hours of testimony house intelligence chairman adam schiff said documents and testimony show the whistleblowers complaint against the president was both urgent and credible. >> reporter: the white house put out a response tonight. saying that democrats subpoena request changes nothing. adding they can continue with their kangaroo court while the president works on behalf of the american people. >>> in a sarcastic tweeted they the president dared america to impeach him. with the unemployment rate at a 50 year low. the labor department said unemployment fail to 3.5% in september. but u.s. hiring did slow down with 136,000 jobs created. it is short of economists estimates. they say appoints the rising uncerta

the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson will answer questions about the whistleblower report that first called attention to a phone call the ukrainian president. kurt volker, former special envoy to ukraine has provided text messages to house lawmakers detailing discussions between diplomats on how to handle president trump's request that ukraine launch an investigation into the family of former vice president joe biden. >> we saw further evidence there was a shadow shakedown going on. >> any allegation that president trump's was trying to get president zelinski to manufacture dirt on the bidens is just not true. there was no quid pro quo. >> the white house is expected to send a letter to house speaker nancy pelosi today arguing the white house does not have to cooperate with congress on the impeachment proceedings because there has not been a full house vote on the impeachment inquiry. >>> president trump's is also suggesting that china investigate the business dealings of joe biden's son, hunter.e bidens. >> democratic presidential candidate joe biden, elizabeth war

need to get to the bottom of this very pressing matter intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson will appear at a closed door briefing tomorrow which is also the deadline house democrats have given the white house to submit documents related to the ukraine phone call. >>or face a peanuts. >>we're not fooling around here though we don't want this to drag on months and months and months which appears to be the administration's strategy. >>it comes after the state department inspector general gave lawmakers, dozens of pages of documents that make many of the same unproven claims about the bidens the trump allies have been making. congressman jamie raskin was the loan lawmaker to attend the briefing. this essentially. >>and this information spreading conspiracy those conspiracy theories have been widely debunked and discredited. >>the documents attempt to smear joe biden and former us ambassador to ukraine marie yovanovitch president trump's attorney rudy giuliani told cnn some of the documents originated with him and he then gave them to the white house. a source telling cnn the whi

the new whistle-blower is cooperating with the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson, but is not expected to file a separate complaint. according to legal sources, this government official has firsthand knowledge that supported the first whistle-blower who submitted this nine page document august 12th firsthand knowledge is critical because whistle-blower one was not a direct witness, but claimed to be informed by more than half a dozen u.s. officials. for democrats, this new whistle-blower could aid their impeachment inquiry. >> we will want to hear from that person. >> people who were in the very core of all of these evehappen >> reporter: president trump taunted on twitter they're going to the bench and another whistle-blower is coming in from a few splinters. three gop senators, mitt romney, ben sasse and now susan collins criticized president trump for urging china to investigate joe biden and son hunter's business there. the bidens deny any wrongdoing collins is considered vulnerable for reelection in may. >> i thought the president made a big mistake by asking

today the intelligence community inspector general michael atkinson will return to capitol hill to talk about the whistleblower accusation about the ukrainian matter to light. >> i will say that we saw further evidence that there was a shadow shakedown going on. >> reporter: the democrats say that yesterday's 10 hour interview with former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker yielded more evidence of concerted effort to force ukraine to investigate the bidens but republicans point to specific text messages between senior u.s. diplomats. one saying, as i said on the phone, i think it's crazy to withhold security assistance for help with the political campaign. the other response, bill, i believe you're incorrect about prompt's intentions. the president has been crystal clear. no quid pro quos of any kind. >> if there was an academy award for leading the witness my democratic colleagues would've gotten three oscars today. >> reporter: in the administration today is expected to argue the white house does not have to cooperate with congress on this impeachment probe because there has been no

secure floor of the capitol right now is the inspector general for the intelligence community michael atkinson he was the person who that is the whistleblower reported deemed it credible and played a large role in making sure that congress received it which is what drove us all to this point launching the impeachment inquiry but even as committee members are hearing his testimony has here are still reeling over the revelations from yesterday when former special envoy to ukraine kurt volker also testified behind closed doors but he also gave over his text messages which have been released to the public and they appear to paint a picture that u.s. diplomats and ukrainian officials had a clear understanding exactly what was being asked for and what was at stake when president trump on that july 25th phone call said to president bill and there is a linsky of ukraine do.

. >> and what about michael atkinson, the i.d. for the intelligence community.be testifying on friday. >> the idea is he's going to defend his handling of the whistleblowers complaint. that complaincame to him directly, and he checked it out to his own satisfaction, to be able to say he found it credible and urgent, and serious, and then passed it on to the director of national intelligence, his superior for further action. we know that because that individual, joseph mcgwire, mass appeared before the house intelligence committee last week. so this is further checking of s whistleblowers complaat is driving this whe process. >> marisa, joseph mcgwire didn't find it necessarily all that credible, though, did he >> no, and i think this speak tox the different ways that different members of the administraon are trying to spin this versus the way the democrats view it. what i would say is that every single piece of evidence that has come out since adam schiff first stood up and madeanthe cryptic message about this hawhistleblower complain played into democratic hand

catherine: according to sources familiar with the closed door session, michael atkinson said the whistleblower did not disclose his contact with the intelligence committee before the complaint was filed. sources say he revealed the whistleblower was a registered democrat with a relationship with a high-level democratic politician. >> we have not spoken directly with the whistleblower. we would like to. catherine: chairman schiff should be disqualified from running an investigation where his committee -- members or staff, are fact witnesses about contact with whistleblower and whistleblower process. >> the newly released prepared remarks from the special envoy from ukraine show he drew a distinction between rudy giuliani's investigation and public policy. senior diplomats reveal the phon.a short time ago atkinson t the house committee after 7 1/2 hours behind closed doors. fox news reached out to schiff's spokesman as well as the whistleblower's legal team and there was no immediate comment. lou: as the radical dimms and the national left-wing media obsessed over their efforts to overthrow this

the washington chapeller in's byron york writes that michael atkinson revealed the whistleblower quote significant tie to one of the democratic presidential candidates currently vying to challenge president trump in next year's election. byron york was praised saying this is just the beginning of the end. thank you, byron york. terrific reporting. give me the name of that democratic candidate. >> i don't know. but the story goes back to august 26 when the inspector general of the intelligence community writes this letter that we have seen, a letter to the director of national intelligence. it said the whistleblower had sound cases of what he called an arguable political bias in favor of a rival political candidate. imagine that. lou: political bias. >> a few weeks later we had press reports that said we found out what the bias was. the whistleblower is a registered democrat. a lot of come terry said -- a lot of common terry saying that republicans i region station in the democratic party is bias. the inspector general testified friday to the house. he was asked, just base's registered

. >> friday the intelligence community watchdog michael atkinson will testify behind closed doors. lou? lou: newly released documents paint a damning picture of former deputy attorney general rod rosenstein's role in the attempted overthrow of the president. judicial watch obtaining hundreds of thousands of rosenstein's communications and one was written three days after the firing of james comey. in the people he assures robert mueller said the boss doesn't know with our discussions. he emailed mark flip saying quote, i am with mueller. he shares my views. duty calls. sometimes the moment chooses us. that email sent just the day before rosenstein appointed robert mueller to be the special counsel. the messages also delivered in the same period rosenstein was discussing with senior fbi officials the possibility of wearing a wire with former acting fbi director andrew mccabe and perhaps they planned to invoke the 25th amendment against president trump. adam schiff continues to deny reports his office was in direct contact with the whistleblower before the complaints was filed. earli

of life, you'll see how unfairly we've been tweeted >> the impeachment inquiry moving along michael atkinson arriving on capitol hill this morning and his closed door temperature regarding the whistleblower complaint is expected to last all day. >> relatives to the victims of the paris terrorist attack welcome a new piece of art of a hand holding1 baoon-li tulip. the missing 12th tulip represents the lives lost in the 2015/2016 terror attacks >> just about half an hour to go >> we'll see you in about half an hour, 2:00 in the east and elsewhere. it is a jobs day we'll talk jobs in a different kind of light with a mckenzie partner who has looked at the effects of automation and robotization of the work place not only region to region and state by state by occupation looking at the ones that might be the ones the most disrupted by automation and robots many of those jobs are low-skilled, repetitive-type jobs in food service or manufacturing. they tend to effect people who are lower on the pay sle and maybe on entry level positions >> i think there are big political implications too about the f

justice department's office of legal counsel has written a letter to the intelligence community michael atkinsonpbraiding him. stating that the inspector general should never have treated the so-called whistleblower's complaint as an urgent concern saying it was outside the intelligence community and not a matter of urgent concern. the u.s. and china appear to be closing on a number of certain aspects of the deal. ed lawrence has the latest from washington. reporter: chinese state media signaling the vice president's speech walked a fine line between the hard talk an and th- accommodating language. lighthizer said they are close to the finalizing an agreement, not a treaty. president trump said chain a still needs a deal. president trump: the farmers will do better than maybe anything. china wants to make a deal. they would like to see reductions in tariffs that are scheduled to go on very soon. they would like to see them not go on. reporter: he seemed co-to confirm what the chinese trade sources told us. that's 15% tariffs. the chinese worked hard to get those tariffs postponed or not put in p

saying the inspector general did a review, made sure the allegations were credible in the view of michael atkinson. that's why he issued what was a credible and urgent concern, so pushing back on the notion this is simply hearsay, say yes, it did have access to sources and information directly for people who had direct geology. is he did tweet last night, saying he would take it until considering, also in that same tweet, rudy giuliani said there were all sorts of questioning and privileges that could be breached, so a sign he may be willing to fight this in the days ahead. he hayes two weeks to turn over documents, everything that was referenced in that whistle-blower complaint about giuliani's efforts to urge the ukrainians to raid the bidens, the ultimate question, whether they use any noncompliance as evidence to congress that they president-elect could be an impeachable offense. >> just moments ago, this is new video, in italy, this as we learned that pompeo was on the call with the ukrainian president when the president gave that pressure. let's get the latest from the white house. particula

it was specific, factual, compelling him and what i found most revealing was michael atkinson, who waseral, michael mckinley, 37 years of service in the state department, amor taylor, ri jovanovich, lau coope fiona hill, no hedge funds, no tech buyouts, ese are people o devoted themselves. ambassador taylor was the witness from hell, he really was, 49 years ofubc service, brought back from retirement at of state, and he could not gory unmentioned that mike pompeo is fighting -- is violating every rule of the united states military. he has totally abandoned and not stood up for any of the people he has appointed. judy: the secretary of state. mark: e secretary of state, and these professionals that have come forward, at cost to their careers, his silence is a telling indictment of himchnd his lack oacter. judy: but as we see, david, the white house continues to say, and the president is raging about this, he is saying these ople have no credibility. he was saying yesterday, they are part of the so-called deep state, u again,ng a lot worse language than that. david: done so far -- and so

make your case. >> katherine just reported what happened on the question of michael atkinson on friday. it was held in secret. the volker and atkinson interviews were held in a scif, a room that's specially constructed to make sure there can be no electronic penetration of everything and everything remains secret. these are being handled as if they were huge state secrets and nothing that has to be kept secret. what you're hearing republicans say is we shouldn't just have this little leak or that little leak of what took place in these interviews. we should have the entire transcripts released and the future meetings should be held in public so people can see what was said. >> bill: maybe at some point they are in public. what are you afraid of right now if you made these hearings public? >> i don't know. the democrats have said the secrecy is necessary to protect the an imtee of the whistleblower, referring to the first now, now a second one apparently. but the law is not absolute on this. if you look at the law it says the inspector general of the intelligence community shall not rev

night -- yes, on friday night and then on this friday morning you get the inspector general michael atkinsonee you're in number three. >> yes, i will be there on friday. we have a lot of questions for the inspector general. he put out a release yesterday that said that he cited everything in the -- to the complainant that you cannot pass this along. if there is not first-hand knowledge of the incident being reported. and yet he passed it along anyway. i did not see any firsthand knowledge in the complainant's form and statements. yet there was apparently a box that he checked saying he had first-hand knowledge. none of that was in the complaint. that will be one of the questions i have plus many more obviously as we proceed forward. >> bill: a specific question. you've seen the transcript of the phone call with the ukraine president. do you see anything wrong in that yes or no? >> you know i don't really. i think it's imperative. i think it is imperative to have a conversation between two heads of state. when you were talking about corruption within both of those countries perhaps. what kind

on capitol hill intelligence community michael atkinson's made his second appearance since plugging whistleblower complaint that triggered the impeachment probe. after atkinson's testimony house intelligence adam schiff said documents and testimony so the whistleblowers complaint was urgent incredible. nicole killian cbs news the white house to extract ukraine's new top prosecutor announced they are reviewing previous investigations in ties to biden's son. he is not seeing any evidence of wrongdoing. >>> we asked willie brown if impeachment is inevitable. >> well, there's a difference from impeachment and removal. impeachment is like criticizing me or sending me to the rentable's office. you've got to say removal for it to mean anything. but it is almost over already. period. in terms of the impact to help on him. he seems to be upping the ante. >> we will have more on that tomorrow morning right here on kpix 5 . >>> the bluegrass festival has begun. >> security has been ramped up. for the first time you have to pass the security site to get in. there are several layers of fencing with extra offi

michael atkinson is testifying behind closed doors. jillian: congressman doug collins, nancy pelosi throwing house rules in the trash. >> which to him is a clear indication that it is all about overturning the 2016 election. >> amazing to me nancy pelosi had such little faith in the american people. if she was right, if she had an agenda, if she believed the democratic party candidates for president were on the right track with the right message, why is she so skeptical of the american people voting for what they believe is the right idea? the problem is she knows donald trump is connecting with american people come he did in 2016 and we will see it again next year and what they are seeing from her is wanting to overturn an election because the next election they are scared of and take the rules of the house and throw them in the trash. if you want to do it by the book do that. chairman schiff can't spell truth, they are destroying the institution and everyone got to be agreed on that. >> the constitution says they must hold a vote bef

it is a closed-door hearing and michael atkinson's second appearance before lawmakers since first reporting the infamous whistleblower complaint to congress.>> the ig will have to explain why it was the policy that you can only file a complaint if you had first-hand knowledge and then suddenly it changed and he accepted a complaint based on secondhand knowledge. >> reporter: ahead of the house oversight committee could subpoena the white house saying the administration's refusal to produce related documents is a flagrant disregard for congress. but we have been treated very unfairly. when i speak to foreign leaders , i speak in an appropriate way. >> reporter: they accuse the house speaker of running a sham process. nancy pelosi said there is no const additional requirement nor precedents. >> we have to pursue a there, balanced, reasonable approach that does not jump to any conclusions. >> reporter: the ukraine new prosecutors that he will audit the investigation into the ukrainian gas company that had hunter biden on the board. president trump has alleged without evidence the criminal prob