about the probes ininto possible collusion betwen russia and the trump campaign, we are joined by michael isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for yahoo news. his new piece is titled, "russia probe in turmoil as top dem calls for nunes' recusal." welcome back to democracy now!, michael. can you take us through what happened last night right into this week? started last we week with the rather a starting testimony from fbi director james comey that there has been an active counterintelligence whether thereinto was collusion between the trump campaign and the russian july.ment since late last so more than three months before the election. of tookally sort republicans back. they were not expecting that. they never imagined that it was comey washat james going to break as much news as he did that day. and the next day, devin nunes, the chairman, goes to the white house and sees these documents that nobody else has seen -- dawn amy: secretly. >> secretly. which takes investigation and a different direction if there was improper incidental collection of surveillance of trump transition people by

michael isikoff, david corn and garry kasparov, thank you for joining us. wish we had more time. we'll get you back. >>> breaking news, fbi director james comey asking doj to reject trump's wiretapping claims, the white house backpedaling on the story. we'll bring back in the political power panel next on all that. are your allergies holding you back or is it your allergy pills? break through your allergies. introducing flonase sensimist. more complete allergy relief in a gentle mist you may not even notice. using unique mistpro technology, new flonase sensimist delivers a gentle mist to help block six key inflammatory substances that cause your symptoms. most allergy pills only block one. and six is greater than one. break through your alleres. new flonase sensimist. ♪ ♪ don't just eat. ♪ mangia! bertolli. it was love at first touch met and all you wanted to do was surround them in comfort and protection that's why only pampers swaddlers is the #1 choice of hospitals to wrap your baby in blanket-like softness and premium protection mom: "oh hi baby" so all they feel is love wish

. >> i'm joined now by michael isikoff. i mean this seems big and partly because it has always seemed to be that flynn was the most exposed of all of these figures because he'd been sloppy, and there was a lot of stuff he'd done that seemed like really corner-cutting. >> and also remember he's so central to so many aspects of this. i mean he was the national security adviser to the trump campaign throughout all of last year. >> right. >> then he's sitting in on the classified tension briefings. what we didn't know then is that he also had this private lobbying business for the government of turkey. that's actually one part of this that may explain what he fears his exposure is. remember he only recently retroactively filed with the justice department. >> that he was a -- let's be clear. he was a secret foreign agent quite literally. that's not a hyperbolic statement. he was a secret foreign agent during the period of the campaign up to election. >> right. he had gone to moscow and been paid by rt in december of 2015. how mu

first published, the story was first reported by one of america's great investigative reporters michael isikoff, he now works at yahoo! news. how mike isikoff got this documentation, though, how he got this stuff is itself a great story. and it's about flynn. i mean, if you step back from it for a second, the national security adviser getting fired 24 days into the new administration because he misrepresented his contacts with foreign governments, that alone, if that was the only worrying or negative thing that happened in the entire trump presidency thus far that would be one of the biggest washington scandals in decades. as it stands, it's one of many but it has been one month since michael flynn was fired and almost everything about his fire and tenure as national security adviser has question marks lingering around it. why the administration hired him in the first place is a big part of the mystery. when michael flynn got brought on board as a topped a visor to the trump campaign, even before they won the election and he became national security adviser, just being brought on board the camp

national security reporter at "the new york times," jane mayer, staff writer at "the new yorker" and michael isikoff, chief correspondent for yahoo news. michael, let me start with you. it was remarkable to have this thing reported, anonymous leaks being confirmed on the record by the director of the fbi, both that it's happening and that it started in july. >> exactly. look, it is extraordinary to have the fbi director confirm that there is an active investigation of the campaign of the sitting president over questions of collusion with a foreign power. that in itself is stunning. we knew the fbi was up to something. they were investigating aspects of this. to have comey directly say it's about possible coordination was something i don't think anybody was expecting. also, the fact that this began late july -- >> oh, my goodness, yeah. >> -- more than three months before the election was something i don't think any of us realized in their full dimensions. a couple things worth pointing out, as we reported tonight on yahoo news, this was just a few weeks after christopher steele, the ex-british spy,

. >> here's what michael isikoff said.me point the people who think that there's something to this russia scandal has to show their cards or come up with something otherwise that's going to start to look like one big -- those were his words. >> i'm not sure what he's saying. he says people suspicious of the scandal? >> i'll read it again. that at some point the people who think that there's something to this russia scandal will have to show their cards. >> yeah. i think basically we have two serious investigations that we'll find out whether something is there or not. the fbi and the senate. not the house, however. >> so what do you -- so the house seems -- i said to my panel before, it seems like the adults are in the room now because the house is taking it seriously -- >> the senate is taking it seriously. >> and the leaders are saying we want to get to the bottom of it rather than going at it -- one saying we don't believe there is something there or there is something there. >> we assume that's the what the fbi has bee

. >>> michael isikoff says staffers are speculaing documents may ve been handed to devin nunes by a lawyernamed michaeellis that previously worked for nunes on the committee and hired this month to work. and until we get the simple answer to a question like that the house intelligence committee investigation will remain basically on ice. still no date for this week's hearing supposed to feature testimony from acting attorney general sally yates and probably be no hearings at all until at least after the easter break. time to start getting ready for easter now, you guys. as of today, all nine members of the democratic committee have called on him tory 'cuse himself from the investigation. it is temperamenting it is dead and everybody should pivot away from it and instead rest their hopes on the senate investigation. one person i'm sure who doesn't believe that, congressman schiff. >> what can you do updaing us on the status of your committee, the question everybody has on their mind whether or not this investigation is still live in the house of representatives? >> here's the situation and

bring in msnbc political analyst joan wah, contributor and forme vermont governo howard dean, michael isikoff for yahoo! news and nbc terrorist analyst malcolm nance. malcolm, we put that together so people could see it lined up. nunes in his own words completely contradicting himself, in scooby-doo you get a -- like, what? so what did we just see? >> you know, i was live with brian williams when that was going on and i was flabbergasted and confused then and i had all week to process it and i'm still flabbergasted and confused. the only charitable thing we can say is that he decided to use intelligence information as cover for the president. he decided to muddy the waters even further and give donald trump the ability to believe that he was under some form of surveillance. >> you're saying -- i'm going to draw you out on this point. you're saying the theory of the case is that he misused or allowed a misperception about the underlying facts to do a political favor? >> yes. absolutely. i'm glad you summed it up quite succinctly. that's what it was. the information he was talking about, it did