at the white house, mola lenghi. ken, back to you. >> mola, i'm real liqueur just more about this israeli connection. um, word coming out that they are the source of this information that got to russia. what do you know about that? >> well, that's right. we have confirmed that the israelis were the source of the information that president trump relayed to the russians. it has become a source of controversy and former intelligence chief, um, for the mossad, the intelligence chief for israel stated this could hamper trust and further relations down the road, although the ambassador to the united states from israel has been more diplomatic saying that the trust has not been broken at all between the united states and israel. in terms of intelligence sharing. so some political fallout international fallout that could come out of that. ken? >> mola lenghi reporting live, thank you. >>> new evidence that oakland police knew of illegal activity inside the ghost ship warehouse before last year's deadly fire. kpix 5's veronica

cbs reporter mola lenghi has the latest from capitol hill. >> reporter: president trump addressed coast guard graduates in connecticut wednesday. >> never, ever, ever give up. things will work out just fine. look at the way i have been treated lately. [ laughter ] >> especially by the media. >> reporter: it is his first appearance since the revelation of former fbi director james comey's memo which claims the president asked him to drop the investigation into fired national security adviser flynn. emoted the president: >> reporter: the white house said the president has never asked mr. comey or anyone else to end any investigation. >> there's an fbi investigation going on right now. >> reporter: republican leaders say they support a vigorous investigation of possible trump campaign ties to russia. >> we need the facts. it is obvious there are some people out there who want to harm the president but we have an obligation to carry out our oversight regardless of which party is in the white house. >> reporter: democrats continue to call for a special prosecutor. >> we know the president is

cbs correspondent mola lenghi is on capitol hill ahead of a key briefing today in the senate. >> reporter: president trump took to twitter this morning to slam the justice department's decision to appoint robert mueller as special counsel to investigate trump campaign ties to russia. he tweeted: >> i'm sure he is going to say it's a partisan effort. i don't think mueller is going to be a partisan guy. >> reporter: the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein tapped the former fbi chief saying i determined that a special counsel is necessary in order for the american people to have full confidence in the outcome. >> i now have significantly greater confidence that the investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead. >> reporter: rosenstein is on capitol hill this afternoon to answer tough questions from senators about the events that led up to fbi director james comey's termination and his decision to appoint a special counsel. congress will continue to carry out their own investigation. >> congressional investigation will determine [ indiscernible ] we are going to redouble our effor

cbs reporter mola lenghi has more from washington with why the justice department decided to make thisove. mola. >> reporter: allen, former fbi chief robert mueller has been tapped as special counsel of this investigation. he has been really given broad sweeping authority to gather all the relevant facts in the russian investigation and wherever those facts might lead including subsequent matters that arose from the investigation like the firing of james comey. he has also been given authority to pursue federal charges if he sees fit. the department of justice appointed former fbi director robert mueller as special counsel for the investigation into alleged meddling. he will prosecute federal crimes. it came after president trump fired james comey and the president allegedly pressured comey to drop his investigation into former national security adviser michael flynn. the white house denies it. the president complained about his treatment at the coast guard academy graduation. >> no politician in history, and i say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly. >> rep

mola lenghi, thank you live from washington. >>> new evidence that oakland police knew of the illegal activity inside the ghost ship warehouse before last year's deadly fire. ken bastida following some developments. >> reporter: today lawyers announced that they are consolidating claims of more than a dozen families who lost a loved one in the ghost ship fire to a single lawsuit. at the same time, a video has now surfaced of an encounter between tenant derick almena and police two years before the deadly december fire. >> this is where you work right here, right? >> yeah, we're a cooperative. >> police body cameras show almena what he believes was an arson fire set outside the warehouse in september of 2014. he tells the officer he only works at the warehouse even though he says he was having coffee inside at 7 a.m. and a friend was showering. the officer never asks if the men are living there. almena admits they have been building sets for an event at the warehouse. >> we are working all night. we have, like, a benefit on saturday. >> reporter: the officer doesn't ask whether he has

. >> thank you, mola lenghi. >>> let's take a closer look at robert mueller's bay area ties. he rose to the ranks to head the criminal division at the u.s. attorney's office in san francisco in the '80s. in 1998 he was the u.s. attorney for the northern district of california. in 2001, he left here to become the fbi director. [ applause and cheers ] >>> the turmoil is weighing down the markets. stocks were down this afternoon the biggest drop of the year. here's the closing numbers. nasdaq down more than 2%. kcbs radio's financial reporter jason brooks breaks it down. >> wall street suffered its worst session in months as investors are nervous about whether or not president donald trump will be able to press forward with his plans for tax reform and regulatory reforms with the james comey and russia scandals circling around the white house. >> much more on the breaking news out of washington coming up on the "cbs evening news with scott pelley." he reports from washington. >>> am i lawyering? this is my food i just bought. am i loitering. > caught on camera, a confrontation b

reporter mola lenghi is on capitol hill for us to report. >> reporter: veronica, the president pushed back on the russia investigation today. this as lawmakers here on capitol hill were briefed by the department of justice and got some new insight into the investigation. >> the entire thing has been a witch hunt. >> reporter: that's how president trump described the investigation special counsel robert mueller is undertaking of alleged russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and whether his campaign associates played a role. >> there is no collusion between certainly myself and my campaign but i can always speak for myself the russians zero. it divides the company. >> reporter: he denied he tried to pressure fired fbi director james comey to shut down his investigation of former national security adviser michael flynn. >> no. no. next question. >> reporter: there were other developments in the investigation thursday. representative jason chaifetz chairman of the house oversight committee announced he is resigning effective june 30th. he had already said he was not runni