the integrity of the official election data, and the reporting website and official data. >> i yield back the balance of my time. >> mister krebs, i would like to discuss and document russian attacks on state election systems, documents that dhs refused before the committee, you're familiar with october 2017 letter to dhs requesting these documents to ranking member cummings, correct? >> you are familiar with the official question from the record requesting these documents by it subcommittee chair. the joint subcommittee hearing and is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> in late january, they determined seeking a subpoena for these documents. ranking member cummings and five other house committee, wrote to speak to assistance obtaining these documents. and these four letters made part of the official record on today's hearing. >> without objection. >> back at the november hearing. if you will permit me to go back and i commit to you a more fulsome answer for you. in 2018, dhs provided approximately 50 pages of documents, most of which were already publicly available. this did not include a

today, the justice department official official, bruce ohr, is being pilloried. it seems like those keeping their nose to the grind stone also have to worry that they'll get the crosshairs trained on them shortly. >> an understandable concern. each of these has its own gestalt specific fact and circumstances in each of those cases. i don't have visibility into all those details. you're raising a larger important concern which is whether the department of justice has a big bull's-eye on its back and more broadly whether the constant repeated denigration of the department of justice and its leadership and the types of officials you described is part after effort to undermine the integrity and independence of one of the most important institutions in our government. that's incredibly worrisome. >> is there a fix for that? >> the fix is to raise the cost to carrying out those kinds of actions. by raising the cost to the people who could lend their voices now to expressing objections to the types of courses of action that we hear about in the offing. where republican

today, the justice department official official, bruce ohr, is being pilloried.like those keeping their nose to the grind stone also have to worry that they'll get the crosshairs trained on them shortly. >> an understandable concern. each of these has its own gestalt specific fact and circumstances in each of those cases. i don't have visibility into all those details. you're raising a larger important concern which is whether the department of justice has a big bull's-eye on its back and more broadly whether the constant repeated denigration of the department of justice and its leadership and the types of officials you described is part after effort to undermine the integrity and independence of one of the most important institutions in our government. that's incredibly worrisome. >> is there a fix for that? >> the fix is to raise the cost to carrying out those kinds of actions. by raising the cost to the people who could lend their voices now to expressing objections to the types of courses of action that we hear about in the offing. where republican members of

not brought in from time to time and consult with an administration officials, intelligence officials on threats to the united states? >> i it is dangerous to block the information they have at the table. i think for the president and administration to minimize or attempt to minimize these individuals by simply saying they're using the security clearances for monetary purposes. i think it's unfortunatel. they have a broad reference point with the public and private sector now that they're in the private sector many of them and does a disservice to our country. you have americans deeply disi lu -- disillusioned with the process. encroachment of foreign enties upon the electoral process. to do this publicly not only hurts morale in the intelligence community but it also deepens and widens the gap of mistrust and distrust of officials in our democracy. >> let's turn to the manafort trial. is it appropriate for the president, we heard this earlier today leaving the white house, to weigh in on the trial of his former campaign chairman and offer support and say things like he's a very nice

and official with knowledge of the matter tells me that the nation's senior most intelligence official dan coats was not consulted and the cia, quote, caught off guard by the move which is an unprecedented use of presidential authority to punish his political rivals. press secretary sarah sanders today could not explain why the president never issued a similar statement revoking the clearance of his own former national security adviser flynn who admitted to lying to the fbi. i'll speak with congressman don beyer. let's go straight to the breaking news and cnn white house correspondent kaitlan collins. this is truly a bombshell. it is unprecedented. take us through how this happened. >> reporter: well, jim, it certainly is a bombshell and there's no ignoring that the white house made this announcement on a day where they're dealing with the fallout still from that staffer omarosa's tell-all book. now, the white house announcing at the briefing and then later a letter of the president dated july 26th. three weeks ago, in three days after they first announced they were considering revokin

intelligence and national security officials warn russia is still targeting u.s. elections with an eye towards dividing the country before the upcoming mid terms. does the president still think russia's interference is a hoax? >>> cnn learns that special counsel robert mueller is pushing to interview a russian oligarch and his pop star son. >>> flat broke. prosecutors reveal former trump campaign chairman paul manafort spent millions of dollars on home electronics and landscaping even as his book keeper reveals his firm had no money to pay bills. >>> and sloppy spy? she was aggressively flirtatious and boasted of ties to russian intelligence when she drank too much. is this russian spy still a valuable asset for moscow? i'm wolf blitzer and you are in the situation room. >>> this is cnn breaking news. >> the white house brings out its intel and national security chiefs in a big show it means business. the director of national intelligence says -- i'll speak with congressman of the armed  services committee and our correspondents and specialists are also standing

our senior officials and-- >> where are those-- >> and the officials in the city of toronto. >> whereose 800 people going to go? >> i'm aware that plans have already been made to move those individuals into quite appropriate housing in hotels around the-- >> for how long will they be staying in hotels? >> that depends on their integration into the community and the processes that are currently underway. >> how long do you anticipate they will stay in hotels? >> again, we see a transition of those individuals out-- >> and how much will it cost to be in hotels. >> i'll refer to the officials-- >> i'm sorry? >> do you think it's reasonable to house 800 people in hotels? . do you have-- >> and people have adequate shelter as they work through the due process. >> would you characterize. >> it's difficult for them to interpret in our two officials languages if they're speaking over. >> thank you, mr. chair. >> mr. blair, would you characterize housing someone in a hotel for an indeterminate period as adequate housing? >> they are under-- they're undergoing two process and the review of thei

officials have reportedly tried to foster a new round of talks. in the meantime, what they're dealing with, what u.s. military officials are dealing with, is a president who is impatient with this process and would like to bring troops home, but he has backed a new strategy where there is no time limit on the fight. so from the u.s. military's perspective, the tough thing for them is going to be with the troops they currently have on the ground, somehow helping afghan army that is besieged and has trouble replacing the troops that are lost with new recruits. to maintain some sort of security and stability. >> and then colonel, do you see the taliban as part of the solution here and that, you know, patience coupled with that is going to be a smart strategy? >> you know, i think the reality dictates that they're going to have to be part of the strategy. they're not going away. kim's right, a lot of them are migrating over to isis because they believe isis represents that anti-western force that they once were. but if you're going to reconcile the en

hundreds of iranians angry at a state of the economy have protested and at least five cities iran's official news agency says the demonstrations were it legal and have been broken up by police iranian currency the reaal has hit record lows this week it's lost around half of its value this year is concerned bell's about the reimposition of u.s. sanctions which start next tuesday same bus ravi has more now from the capital attack iran. what we're seeing these protests break out in the main cities about five or six different provinces the biggest demonstrations in the city of isfahan and ensure rise now protests in iran have become relatively normal with the economic struggle that the country's been seeing for the past several months so dozens of people protesting in their cities in the towers in the villages is not something that generally makes the news bold what we have seen in the last forty eight hours is dozens of protesters in a few pockets around the country turning into hundreds in main cities in multiple provinces and that's really what is interesting here we also saw or have heard un

downy and it's done. >>> there are local officials election officials in florida that say that nelsonor information. >> florida officials say they asked the fbi and homeland security department about nelson's comments and say there is no proof to back up the claims. the democrat is in the middle of a tough re-election fight with republican governor rick scott. >>> new concerns inside the u.s. defense community about a russian satellite that's been acting, let's say, strangely, expert worry the strange behavior could mean the russians are planning to use the satellite as a bweapon. brian todd spoke with those tracking it. >> reporter: a soyuz blasts into space. the payload, a rocket shrouded in mystery. space and military analysts are investigating whether the satellite is the same one which a top u.s. arms control official said this week was exhibiting, quote, abnormal behavior. >> when you look at the russian catalog, the satellite and its children are the ones that jump out as the ones that are acting in an unusual way. >> reporter: the satellite's children, experts at the firm anal

the city awarded its first official permits yesterday to "scoot" and "skip." they were the only companies approved.. out of the 12 that applied. this comes after complaints he city to tow >>> electric scooters will soon be rolling on the streets of san francisco. they have their first official permits for scoot and skip, the only companies approved out of the five. they were going to take away all scooters in june. since then, there was a permit process created. >> we are optimistic scooters can play a role in transportation in san francisco. specs of the biggest players in the game were not awarded permits, line, electric scooter operator in several markets said they have selected and experienced scooter operators that plan to learn on the job at the expense of the public good, others say this is not the case. >> we have a different criteria and they had the opportunity to shows their ideas. we are not penalizing anyone for anything other than not meeting our high standards. >> scoot and skip have been approved for a 12 month permit that will allow them to op

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and shows church officials covered it up for decades. report is cardinal donald worrell the arch buyer bishop of washington, d.c. he was the archbishop 1998 to 2006. he spoke to wttg defending his handling of priests accused of abuse. >> i have tried to do my very best to deal with this whole question of allegations against a priest. now, remember, we are talking about a long spectrum of time so how we dealt with things in the late 1980s, early 19990s is different than the way we would today. >> wuerl also dismissed allegations that he and other church officials showed only disdain with victims. he met with anyone who came forward. shep? >> shepard: lauren, i mentioned that we haven't heard from the vatican, haven't heard from the pope. what have they been doing about this problem? >> well, you are absolutely right, shep. you know, a lot of criticism is directed at the vatican for not responding yet. the pope has accepted the resignation of five issue will shops from chili after detailing the reports of sex abuse there. he denounced what

i've been and i ice officials are not welcome in their place of worship. their information is shared on the internet. when i was a correspondence association which all all your members, you brought you to my appearance and calling a traitor to my own gender. as i know, as far as i'm the first press secretary in the history of the united states required secret service protection. the media continues to ratchet up the verbal assault against the president and everyone in this administration we have a role to play the media will play as well. >> if i may follow-up, excuse me. you did not say in the course of those remarks you made that the press is not the enemy of the people. are we to take it from you what you just said , we will put in) the sound in your notes section and i'm sorry that happened to you. i wish thathad not happened . but for the sake of this room, the people who are in this room, this democracy, this country, all the people around the world are watching what you are saying sarah and the united states of america, president of the united state

we saw about 60 intelligence officials -- former intelligence officials came together to sign a letter basically pushing back on the move from the president. but i think from the white house's point of view, this is a public relations strategy to really undermine critics of the russia investigation. we saw yesterday that the president was tweeting about g.o.j. official bruce ohr and his ties to the steel bossier and his past comments on that issue and it seems like he's the next official that will most likely be targeted in all of this. so i think it is a public relations strategy from their standpoint but critics will say that former officials keeping their security clearances is a good thing because it is -- it allows them to be able to communicate with government officials who are currently serving if they need any advice on a particular matter. so people would say it is a national security issue. >> and jonathan, talking more about the washington post report on how white house officials are planning to use letters like the one they wrote to revoke the security clearance as part of

are you being protected by officials in south africa? and there are separate allegations in a confidential report by the gistrate's commission seen by the bbc concerning alleged payments for appointments. it found the most senior magistrate received money. the report says that it appears to have a pattern of racketeering activity. he denies any wrongdoing and said he would not respond unless formal charges were laid against him. the commission and the police are investigating. corruption is a word often usedh in sfrica, but one of its veteran zulu politicians say fears it is wiping out the rhinos. >> it seems to me they want to completely eliminate them. the whole of south africa is reeks of corruption. reporter: more rhinos are killed, the mber of orphans left behind is increasing. unless demanis stopped in asia and corruption tackled here, they are heading towards extinction. rajini: starting today, u.s. moviegoers will be able to watco thing they have not seen in a quarter of century, a modern asstudio film led by an aln cast. "crazy

authorities say it went on for decades as senior church officials instead of rushing to expose it covered it up. >> the time of telling these victims to keep their truth to themselves has ended. ud allegations he racial slur by calling omarosa a dog, and she wastes no time making new explosive allegations. the white house asked to guarantee there are no tapes of trump using the "n" word said this. >> i can't guarantee anything. >>> a deadly bridge disaster. a packed span suddenly collapses in a powerful storm, cars plunging below. tonight many dead and a frantic search for survivors in the rubble. >>> a terror-attack in the heart of london, a car plowing into a crowd. >>> late word of injuries as a massive gas explosion blows a home to pieces. >>> prayers for the queen. the latest on the health of aretha franklin, ailing tonight in detroit. >>> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening. welcome to our viewers in the west. we begin with a shameful tragedy now revealed and shocking the catholic church tonight from pennsylvania to the vatican. an explosive grand jury repo

what message does that send to current doj officials? >> i think it's very clear this is a personalized presidency. you cross him and he will go after you whether you work for him or not, whether you are the media or not, whatever. and so this is -- everything he does is a shot across the bow for other people. he goes at brennan's security clearance to warn other people. he goes at ohr to warn other people. it's a form of grotesque intimidation, but it is his stock in trade. >> it sounds nixonian. >> and it sounds although i'm not an attorney like obstruction of justice. it's obstruction of justice but it's so out in the open that it's almost hard to process how outrageous it is. like so much else about this administration. >> when you want to hide something, hide it in plain sight. >> like sending a message to paul manafort who obviously will make decisions about the second trial he has in september based on whether or not he might expect a presidential pardon. so he's doing all of these things that if we had a functional political syst

there's a new sign tonight that white house officials waited for weeks to drop the brennan bombshell. was it specifically timed to distract from the president's ugly feud with a former aide, omarosa. >>> hitting mueller. rudy guiliani is promising to unload like a ton of bricks if the special counsel does not wrap up his russia probe within the next few weeks. is the president okay with his lawyer's threats? >>> and heading to the jury. the criminal trial of paul manafort is nearing an end, and a potentially dramatic verdict for or against the president's former campaign chairman. women it also be a verdict on the mueller investigation? >>> we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i am jim sciutto. and you're in "the situation room". ♪ >>> and the breaking news. former cia director john brennan says americans should be, quote, gravely worried about president trump's unprecedented move to punish him for speaking out against the administration calling it abuse of power. brennan and others in the intel aren't buying that he

one of the cia official joins me now. great to have you here. tell us what was at the forefront of your thinking when you decided to join others of the intelligence community in this letter. >> i wanted to ensure that my signature was in the letter to say unequivocally i don't think it is okay. >> tell me why that is the issue. what would happen if we applied political litmus tests to people who did the kind of work that you do. >> then it would strictly be about ideology, political party and have nothing to do with national security. i would say this if it was a letter that i had to sign saying the same thing about former president barack obama, president george bush. any press in our history. i can't imagine anyone asking about loyalty. even if he was, president trump was opposed to john brennan's actions this is not the type of actions he should be taking. this is like retaliation against a former government official and that in and of itself is extremely dangerous. that is so dangerous. that is like a dictator or autocrat. >> are you hearten

many think that a former intelligence official should not be doing this. i never registered as a republican or democrat in my life. i feel a commitment to this country's security and rep taking. i am the son of an immigrant. my father taught me and my siblings early on, how important it is to take the privilege of being born an american citizen. when i see what mr. trump is doing, trashing the reputation of this country world wide. the way he treated americans, how he refers to them, the divisziveness, polarization, that is not what this country is about. >> presidents over the generations, some of them have been terrible jerks, if you read the right history books, some of them deliberately divisive, treated people in their personal lives or political lives. your criticism of president trump, rises above that type. despite what you articulated, vugone further than that after helsinki, you were stark and scary of your criticism of his behavior. you said it was nothing short of treasoness. >> it has been singled out, maybe by you, that crossed the line. >> c

this coming to us from a canadian official. so we're now being told talks will continue into next week per this official. this is bit of a moving target here remember the friday deadline was about getting this done before the mexican presidency changes hands later this year. so there was a political impetus to have this deal done today not necessarily a legal impetus to have it done today. that is from one foiofficial, a we're getting a lot of conflicting information at one time we're sorting this out with you guys in realtime we're about to get more details as to what exactly that is, possible now we could see these talks extended into next week. >> and we're going to hear officially from the canadian prime minister i think one of the big questions people are going to be listening for did that off-the-record leak, the president's tone, that blunt tone, sort of the insulting tone towards the canadians have anything to do this was wrapped up to snd. >> you be the president saying look, where he stands is no concessions for you.

officials and other u.s. persons through traditional intelligence tradecraft, criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing, cyber attacks against voting infrastructure, including targeting elected officials and others and a whole slew of other kinds of influence, like both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories, spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resources and escalating divisive issues. it is important to understand this is not just an election cycle threat. our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis, whether it is election season are not. there is a clear distinction between, on the one hand, activities that threaten the security and intelligence of our systems and the broader threat of influence operations designed to manipulate our voters and their opinions. with our partners, we are trying to counteract both threats. .e have three pillars the first is our investigations and our operations. for a variety of reasons

and these officials were on the front lines of that warfare. intercepting a lot of the information that is critical to us going forward. this means now that they are not able to access that information to advise our officials. secondly, there's the chilling effect that we discussed before. >> right, right. >> officials who now served but may be in the private sector, and what is that -- what kind of effect does that have on them in terms of whether they're going to be willing to speak out? >> that's exactly it. you had the voice of brennan we've heard, even just since this happened, this statement came out. even before, calling the president treasonous after helsinki. even being outspoken with omarosa. we've heard from him directly he's not going to be quiet. what about the others, these names as well on this list? that may be -- >> the one thing they seem to have in common that is they have all been critics of the president. comey, they say comey was fired, i saw a statement from jim jordan saying, all these people were fired. yes, but comey's

and he invited some russia officials to come tto washington to meet with officials here in washington, including the upper house of the assemb assembly, which would be the first time the uppany of the up house have been to washington. rand paul wants two russians to attend who were sanctioned by the obama administration because of his support for the annexation of crimea and kosachev was sanctioned earlier in the year for meddling in the u.s. elections. but what rand paul wants to do is for all u.s. lawmakers to go to russia and to chave all russian lawmakers to come to washington. we're not sure how he's going to convey that to the president, but he wants to make it very clear to the white house and the state department to let this happen, but obviously it comes at a very tense time between the two countries. >> joining me now, a democrat who serves on the armed services committee. congressman, thank you for joining us. do you view the president's security clearance threat, getting back to that, as possible obstruction of justice or witness intimidation? what do you think? >> you kno

the reason why these former officials have clearances is of that current officials can consult with them. no one is consulting with john brennan. >>chris: there was a world prior to 2017 where they were consulted and the ideais you might want someone who's an expert on russia or the middle east or wherever to help you . >> the way brennan has conducted himself or closes any opportunity to cooperate with this administration. i do think he crossed a line which is a bad idea to have someone wielding some of the mostsensitive powers , immediately upon leaving his office reveal himself to be the most package political actor who's making wild and outrageous charges. if trumbull pics with this list, just arbitrarily without any process or clear standards. i do think it's a bad idea but it seems petty and it will even though he has broad powers, invite first amendment challenges. >>chris: i will turn to another big story and that is the trial of former top trump campaign chairman, paul manafort. the first prosecution by the special counsel. the jury right now, starting on monday, will do its thi

, former government officials, if they dare to speak out. and i think obviously as a lot of my former colleagues have said, it's an egregious step. but to be clear, fred, this is really not so much about security clearances as it is about the right of senior informed intelligence officials to speak out. and to say when they think when the president has made decisions they don't agree with. as someone who spent a lot of time in government, i have defended the president when i thought that he made national security decisions that were in the best interest of the safety and security of this country. by the same token, i've been critical of the president when i thought he made decisions that were not in the best interest of our national security. and i think what everybody should understand is that former officials should have the right to do that. and the intelligence community, we call that speaking truth to power. and it's a very important aspect of our democracy. >> so, sam, with this escalation and tension between the u.s. intel community a

you have these top intel officials, national security, experts and officials and you have the president. with that kind of disconnect, does that embolden russia? does it embolden vladimir putin? >> absolutely. you have -- if you look to divide the united states, you can certainly divide people along some of the social issues that we know are hot button issues. when you get divisions between the president of the united states, the commander who is responsible for national security in this country, and his senior intelligence and national security officials who are nominated by him, when you get a division like that, that for vladimir putin is just really a coup. it's a fabulous accomplishment when you get that senior level division. things are going very well for putin. i might add, these congressional delegations that we hear about where you get snores aenators a representatives going to moscow when we know they are attacking our country, that's another big win for vladimir putin. it's going really well for him in the win/loss column. >> as he is racking up the ws, for the american vote

here's a current doj official. he's someone who had contact with christopher steele, the man who assembled the dossier, and also had contact with fusion gps. his wife also played a role with fusion gps. this is what the president had to say just today about bruce ohr. >> i think bruce ohr is a disgrace. i suspect i'll be taking it away very quickly. i think that bruce ohr is a disgrace with his wife. for him to be in the justice department and to be doing what he did, that is a disgrace. that is disqualifying for mueller. and mr. mueller has a lot of conflicts also. so you know that. >> if we love move on, these arh people who have ties to the whole michael flynn saga. if you look at susan rice, the former national security adviser, she unmasked a number of trump aides in various intelligence intercepts. one of those was michael flynn. if we move on to sally yates, she actually went to the white house and told officials at the white house that she believed mike flynn was compromised because he lied to the vice pres

officials even wrote a letter pleading with the u.s. to exclude european companies from the penalties in the state department's response it's our way or the highway we are asking every nation every nation who is sick and tired of this one republican destructive behavior to join our pressure campaign this is especially those who are allies in the middle east and europe easy for him to say especially when many are saying the e.u. will bear the economic brunt of cutting off ties with iran but for now it remains to be seen whether impossible is truly nothing for the bloc. journalists in belgium have attacked the government there after discovering that they will have to pay fifty euros for security vetting if they want to cover the next leaders' summit they first became aware of the new law after the european council issued accreditation guidance for the event both of the belgian and european journalists associations as well as the european commission have said that the measure undermines media freedom. european commission doesn't like the b

. >> a career fbi official. mccabe who was fired as the - deputy director. of course, he also people close to him say he was fired because of political pressure. think about it. there have been now three people, high profile people in the fbi who have been fired in some way result of this investigation or had a part in this russia investigation. james comey, andrew mccabe and -- >> said he was fired because of the russia investigation. right? not for -- because he wanted him to end the investigation. >> think about it, all the controversy around the investigation, some of the fallout from it, it's really has been something that the fbi has had to deal with. no doubt that they view it as something to put away with the firing of peter strzok and perhaps maybe move on from this chapter. this isn't over for peter strzok. i think his lawyers plan to appeal this and fight this in court. >> understood. so president's lawyer rudy giuliani going to that part of the investigation and seemed to contradict himself on whethe

to lose the clearance, career official. this is what you would expect in some -- basically authoritarian dictatorship and say government officials stripped or punished for the political opposition or how they behaved. it is outside the bounds of what we would normally say the rules and guidelines of our government. >> what's interesting about this letter, amanda, it comes, first of all, after retired admiral mccraven, american hero. he comes out and objects to what the president did with brennan, the 15 individuals, democrats, republicans, independents, a lot of them clearly disagree with john brennan and don't agree with what he's saying but concerned about the precedent and what president trump is doing. and yet, president trump as that his decision to revoke the clearance is getting a tremendous response. >> it is getting a tremendous response. not in the way he thinks. essentially, what these people are saying to the president of the united states if you act in this manner, we no longer wish to serve you. you're losing

these are officials from bipartisan backgrounds. they are officials from democratic presidents. they are officials from republican presidents going all the way back to, i believe, george h.w. bush. then again, jennifer, we've been here before. there have been times in 2016 when a number of newspapers have released open letters from former intelligence officials or military officials or senior diplomats opposing the president, including one that had 50 top gop national security officials signing a letter warning that trump would be the most reckless president in american history. that's august 2016. what sort of effect does a letter like this have on republicans? not on the president. i know how it's going to affect the president. >> well, let me start with how absolutely unprecedented is this letter. it has cia directors going back to 1987 with director webster. it's an extraordinary letter because it's completely without regard to party, completely without regard to their position on mr. brennan. the letter clearly states that some of us have not felt it was appropriate to spea

concluding unequivocally that agency officials had indeed improperly accessed congressional staffers files. more recently, mr. brennan told congress the intelligence community did not make use of the so-called steele dossier in an assessment regarding the 2016 election. an assertion contradicted by at least two other senior officials in the intelligence community and all of the facts. additionally, mr. brennan has recently leveraged his status as a former high-ranking official with access to highly sensitive information to make a series of unfounded and outrageous allegations while on the internet and television about the ministration. mr. brennan's lying and recent conduct with increasing commentary and consistent with access to the nations most closely held secrets. and facilities. the very him of our adversaries, which is to so division and chaos. the larger question about the practice of former officials maintaining access to our nations most sensitive secrets long after their time in government has ended. such access is particularly inappropriate when former officials have trans

, dan coats, the nation's most senior intelligence official, and i should remind people, an officialointed by president trump, dan coats was not consulted by the white house or the president on this decision to revoke the former cia director, john brennan's clearance. remarkable. considering this is presumably an intelligence decision. and let's just be clear. that the decision to revoke clearances is normally reserved for situations in which someone abuses that clearance by, for instance, revealing classified material. this one. because when you go through that list of officials, brooke, you mentioned, john brennan, who has had it revoked already, but james clapper, james comey, sally yates. the one thing they have in common, of course, is public criticism of this president. this appears to be a political decision, not an intelligence decision. and perhaps backing that up is our reporting that the nation's senior most intelligence official, dan coats, was not consulted on this decision by the president. the other thing i would note, brooke, when you look at the officials in that lis

or former official. yet alone for the reason this president explained in this case. when you're on unchartered territory, you don't always know what will come next for us as a country, but when you're the person in the middle of unchartered attacks like this, you have to wonder what it feels like. this interview tonight with john brennan will be his first live tv interview since the president took this action. director brennan, thank you very much for being here tonight. i know you have choices about where to be. thanks for being here. >> thanks, rachel, for having me on. >> so, you were cia director from 2013 to january of 2017. >> right. >> you were president obama's counterterrorism and homeland security adviser. you were 25 years as a cia officer before that. you have been through some stressful situations in your life. how has it been the past couple days since the president singled you out for attack and punishment in this way? >> it's fine. as far as i'm concerned personally, i'm fine. it's not un

and does not have an official role and can do an official act just makes it very difficult to charger you, if you were betting, would you bet that the defense was going to put any witnesses on the stand or do you think they're going to put zero witnesses up there? >> i'm betting they will not. >> i'm starting to, as well. daniel goldman, really appreciate you being here, thank you. >> thank you. >> all right, more ahead here tonight. stay with us. (vo) why do subaru forester owners always seem so happy? because they've chosen the industry leader. subaru forester holds its value better than any other vehicle in its class according to alg. better than cr-v. better than rav4. better than rogue. an adventure that starts with a subaru forester will always leave you smiling. get 0% percent apr financing on the 2018 subaru forester. let someone else do the heavy lifting. tripadvisor compares prices from over 200 booking sites to find the right hotel for you at the lowest price. so you barely have to lift a finger. or a wing. tripadvisor. to put on our website? i mean i would have but i'm a

officials confirms the white house is considering stripping more clearances in the coming days despite the furor over the president's retaliation against john brennan. several intelligence colleagues are now rallying around him. several issued a new statement. among them, six former cia chiefs. including all five from 1997 until brennan came in. >> they write, quote, the president's actions regarding john brennan and threats of similar action against other former officials has nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances and everything to do with the attempt to stifle free speech. this is a signal to other former and current officials and that signal is inappropriate and deeply regrettable. >> the statement came hours after the architect of the osama bin laden raid retired admiral william mcraven published a stunning rebuke of president trump. he wrote, brennan is one of the finest public servants i have ever known. i would consider it an honor if you would revoke my security clearance as well so i can add my name to the list of men and women who spoken up agai

officials and other u.s. persons through traditional intelligence trade craft, criminal efforts to suppress voting and provide illegal campaign financing, cyber attacks against voting infrastructure along with computer intrusions, targeting elected officials and others, and a whole slew of other kinds of influence like both overtly and covertly manipulating news stories, spreading disinformation, leveraging economic resource, and escalating divisive issues. but it's important to understand this is note just an election cycle threat. our adversaries are trying to undermine our country on a persistent and regular basis whether it's election season or not. there's a clear distinction between on the one hand activities that threaten the security and integrity of our election systems and on the other hand the broader threat of influence operations designed to manipulate and influence our voters and their opinions. with our partners, we're trying to counteract both threats. we have three pillars to our operational

right now upwards of 75 former intelligence officials are at odds with president trump. first, there are new names on the list of former senior intelligence officials condemning the president's decision to revoke former cia director john brennan's security clearance. that number now up to 15. that is 15 former directors and deputy directors of the cia and directors of national intelligence dating back to the reagan administration, all signing on to a statement that reads in part, quote, the president's action regarding john brennan and the threats of similar action against other former officials have nothing to do with who should and should not hold security clearances and everything to do with an attempt to stifle free speech. decisions on security clearances should be based on national security concerns and not political views. again, these are household names -- general david petraeus, judge william webster, leon panetta, james clapper, people who have served in republican and democratic administrations or both. and late today, 60 other former cia officials weighed in

the reason why former officials have the security clearances is a current officials can consult withm but no trump official is going to consult with john brennan over anything. >> chris: let me pick up on that because there was a world prior to january of 2017 where they did consult and the idea was you might want somebody who's an an expert on russia or the middle east or whatever to be able to help you. >> the way he has conducted himself forecloses any opportunity to cooperate with any institution and i do think he crossed a line. a really bad idea to have someone wielding some of the most sensitive powers in the united states government immediately upon wheeled dominic leaving his office will reveal himself to be the most hack -- political actor who is making wild and outrageou charges. if trump is just going to go arbitrarily without any process, without any clear standard i do think it's a bad idea, it seems petty and it will, even though he has broad powers, it will invite some sort of trial of former top trump campaign chairman paul manafort. the first prosecution by the spec

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