the white house press secretary sean spicer was asked who let chairman nunes on white house grounds, did he actually have an answer? >> reporter: the short answer is no, anderson, this has become a daily ritual where reporters ask white house officials, namely sean spicer, the press secretary, for any new information on how the house chairman devin nunes made his way to the white house for a secret meeting. and spicer earlier this week said he would look into all of this and try to provide some answers to reporters later on this week, that simply did not happen today and i will tell you, i did press sean spicer specifically on whether he knew who the source of this information was, that was involved with devin nunes and provided him with this bombshell information and sean spicer's one-word answer to that was, no, he did not know who this mysterious source is and so we'll continue to ask for these answers, it's not all together clear where we're going to get those answers. keep in mind earlier today, sean spicer, while he was sounding somewhat willing to get to the bottom of this ear

>> first it was the sort of dead of night meeting at the white house and then the returning to the white house with whatever information he got at the white house. but more than that, to the degree that what he's claiming now goes to weather there was incidental collection on members of the transition team, that's a different issue than we were looking at before. particularly if he says this doesn't involve the russian involvement in the transition team. so in those two areas i think it makes sense for him to recuse himself. >> reporter: and, anderson, you notice the relevant question is that congressman nunes was on the transition team, and we have been hearing from the ranking members and adam schiff moving forward on it. and this idea that what the chairman has uncovered, what the chairman only knows himself actually ties him into this because of his role in the trump transition and so what adam schiff is asking for is not just that congressman nunes removes himself just from the russian investigation, but everything he has concerns about, the trump unmasking because of the trump san

so who are those white house officials? according to the times, ezra cohen-wa cohen-watnick and michael ellis used to work for chairman nunes on the house intelligence committee. so is chairman nunes talking today finally telling us what happened at his tuesday night rendezvous at the white house? no. silence from him. he's not talking. his spokesperson only saying this, quote, he has stated many times chairman nunes will not confirm or deny speculation about his sources' identity. and he will not respond to speculation from anonymous sources. and, yes, you have heard that many times. >> i'm not going to get into the sources. we never talk about sources and methods. we don't talk about sources at this committee. we want more people to come forward. >> well, the other alleged source, ezra cohen-watnick was the subject two weeks ago of this political report about how president trump stepped in to keep the 30-year-old aide on his staff. now just minutes after the "time" broke that story white house press secretary spokesperson

and having chairman nunes come to the white house grounds to receive information. easier for someone to take what he saw to the president, than to bring a chairman from the house over there to receive it. it just isn't adding up. >> what is the status of the investigation? it look likes it's at a stand still. >> it looked like the press conference with senators burr and warner. that's what an investigative road looks like when you have republicans and democrats going down it together. last week, it was stalled when the chairman went over to the white house. we can get back to that moment. but the only way to have independence, dependability and progress is to have a new leader on their side. >> is it fair to say there is an investigation that is ongoing? are people investigating from your committee? or are things just stalled? >> it's stalled. we are receiving information and able to review documents. right now, as far as the public is concerned, there's no public hearing. our hear yesterday, with no given reason, was canceled. there's no future public hearing. and

at the white house. we have new details behind this staffing shakeup at the white house. all this likely to be covered by the way in the white house press briefing which begins any moment now. we'll have live coverage of sean spicer's briefing. he'll answer reporters questions. lots going on. stay with us. your insurance company won't replace the full value of your totaled new car. the guy says you picked the wrong insurance plan. no, i picked the wrong insurance company. with liberty mutual new car replacement™, you won't have to worry about replacing your car because you'll get the full value back including depreciation. and if you have more than one liberty mutual policy, you qualify for a multi-policy discount, saving you money on your car and home coverage. call for a free quote today. liberty stands with you™. liberty mutual insurance. new neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair wrinkles? your time is up! itari with the proven power of retinol. reduces wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena® from engineeri

so that could be the white house grounds. it could be the white house. it the pentagon. it could be cia. there are a number of places we go. i have been working this for a long time with many different sources and needed a place that i could actually finally go because i knew what i was looking for and i could actually get access to what i needed to see. number one, i wasn't sneaking out. it wasn't at night. what it was -- it was in the middle -- the sun was out and i actually stopped and talked to several people along the way. >> so you have other meetings at the white house. did you meet with the president or any of his aides while you were there that night? >> no. i think people in the west wing had no idea that i was there. now just minutes ago the ranking democratic adamhi called upon nunes to recuse himself from this investigation. joining me right now is kristin welker, ken delaney intelligence reporter and democratic congressman eric swevl also joins us. i have to go to kristin walker, it seems to me that he's complaining and still see the sun. he say that is he

and i think that the white house has a lot of questions to answer. we're going to do our best to find out. >> shepard: adam schiff is the vice chairman of the house intelligence committee. i want to explained what happened. 1:15, "the new york times" comes out with a report giving names of those that gave the information to chairman nunes of the house intelligence committee. "the new york times" reports that is michael ellis and ezra cohen watnick, the directed tour of intelligence for the national security council. they have access to the president. the white house press briefing was supposed to follow. they delayed it a half hour. they wanted to delay it because sean spicer reading about this letter sent to adam schiff saying that we have these documents, you can come look at them. so whatever they were trying to keep people from knowing about, which clearly they were because they wouldn't give up whether the information came from the white house that will be more transparent. adam schiff suggesting that he believes the reason they may have done it,

in 8, 10, 12 years you have the white house, the senate and the house.irst, you know, out of the gate attempt at the house has the following nick neighbors, swamp care, trump care, on i'm care 2.5, obamacare .5. rino care. ryan care after paul ryan. this is not conservatives and republicans coming together saying we are going to go forward. >> i think the president wants to get this done. we shared with him this week in a meeting in the oval office, there are key parts of campaign promises that aren't in this bill, mr. president. >> what does he say to that i'm the quote negotiator, what's his response when you say, mr. president, it's just not here in >> he said two things, one we are still negotiating, thank you for pointing out the things that need to get better. >> did you really need to point that out in >> i think his staff knew that. i think ryan is leading the charge here and frankly for whatever reason he just decided to cop-out on key things. there's no competition across state laws, they keep some of obamacare taxes. you think republicans can

this afternoon, i received a letter from white house counsel inviting me to review materials at the white house that pertain to the issue of incidental collection. the letter asked that the committee look into whether these materials were properly gathered, whether they were properly masked or unmasked and properly disseminated, all matters within the course of duties of the committee. we have sent the white house a reply. i'm more than willing to come to the white house at the earliest opportunity to review the materials. i did make clear in my letter, however, that it will be ultimately necessary to share these materials with the full committee and we will need their cooperation as well to work with the agencies who have custody over the original documents. when analyzing questions whether something is properly the subject of incidental collection or whether it was properly unmasked or the distribution list is appropriate, that is impossible to do without consulting the agencies to find out how the materials were gathered and why there was a need to know in case of any unmasking of name

or on the white house grounds, that he later returned to the white house. in my view there's no legitimate reason to with hold that from the committee. that is charges responsibility of overseeing these issues. >> there's nothing normal and what's taken place over the last week. it's certainly not normal to receive information that you can't share with your own committee members but you share with the president particularly if it involves associates of the president. none to have committee members have seen it. none of the democrats or republicans have seen what the chairman is referring to. >> the details as they have been reported go to a spy novel. nunes swapped cars and slipped away from staff. it goes on to report it's in that stretch of time when the chairman appears to have reviewed the classified intelligence files, files brought to his attention by sources he will not name. chairman nunes in an interview on cnn today defended his actions. >> i've read a lot of reports that aren't true. >> well, tell us what is true. >> number one i wasn't sneaking

the white house is refusing to say who signed him on to the white house grounds. is that problematic? >> one. we're going to find out who signed him into the white house. look, it's washington. nobody keeps secrets in washington anymore. when you're a political official. just the appearance of it looks leak they're trying to hide something. the white house has not been forth riet or willing to work with eethner department of justice or with capital hill, spiff clae the democrats. they have not been as forthcoming as they should have been. >> do you think we'll get answers? >> eventually. there's a lot of question about working for nunes who went to work at the white house on national security matters and so he would seem to be a natural suspect as it were to have at least facilitated this visit by nunes. >> but he was asked about michael ellis today and his response is "you're asking too many questions." >> right. >> i hate that. >> but can i just say on the question of the executive privilege here. this was actually, to me, the most significant development today

his afternoon, i received a letter from white house counsel inviting me to review materials at the white house that pertain incident of incidental collection. the letter asked that the look into whether these materials were properly gathered, whether they were masked or unmasked and properly disseminated. ll matters which were within the ordinary course of the committee's responsibilities, we have sent the white house a reply. i am more than willing to come to the white house at the review opportunity to the materials. i did make sure in my letter, however, that it will be necessary to share these materials with the full need tee, and we will their cooperation as well to work with the agencies who have of the original documents. when analyzing questions of whether something is properly subject of incidental collection, or whether it was properly unmasked, or the list is ion appropriate, that is impossible to do without consulting the find out how the materials were gathered and why there was a need to know in case unmasking of names. this is not something that is on the faceapparent of t

so even though the white house is saying they would like to have her testify we will see if that ever happens in the house committee or on the senate committee which is also under way. >> testimony from jeff zeleny, thanks very much. also, tonight, house intelligence chairman, insisting the russian investigation is moving forward as he rejects growing calls to recuse himself. let's go to senior congressional reporter, yet another chance today. >> he is defiantly staying in that position or asking for him to step aside and amounting to partisan politics and republicans on the committee including peter king of new york told me earlier today now this all coming afternoon ynunez briefed the white house. surveillance he learned from a secret source on white house grounds about communication with trump officials and that were picked up in intelligence reports and also his decision to abruptly cancel tuesday's public hearing that was supposed to happen today and also committee and because of this canceling all other private briefings going on today. raising real questions about whether it co

as he white house official. because "the new york times" called him a senior director for intelligence at the nsc. is our reporting different? >> no, no. that's his title. >> but not defense intelligence as you just said. >> okay. let me go to kelly. sean spicer, very defensive during that briefing last hour. essentially saying this is all just process and that reporters are obsessed with the process of how this information was gathered, right? >> yeah. and just picking up on your conversation with ken, because the national security council does take people from intelligence sxagss other departments across the government, although ken ran this down and found out the individual in question is a white house employee, it makes me wonder if chairman nunes would have been aware of that distinction. perhaps his denial isn't necessarily closing a door on that. in the weeds there but worth knowing. sean spicer talked about the white house has invited top intelligence officials from capitol hill and oversight. the two co

he defended the white house. i think there's one thing the press sometimes does especially in the white house. >> were you watching the same interview? >> they act as if somehow they're above the average american person or they're somehow better than other people or they're elitist or special. you're a reporter. you're not special. when you go after a white house press secretary -- >> you don't think he jumped down her throat? he was very defensive. no, we don't have that. we don't have that. >> russian salad dressing. if you look at her questioning, >> if you watch the white house briefings, which i watch most days for my show, she's been pretty consistent of a negative person toward the white house. >> come on, ryan. >> yes, april ryan. you shouldn't be shocked by this. she's not a conservative, don. >> so wait, wait, wait. what it sounds like and i know you're not saying that, i don't think you're saying this, but in order for her to be credible she has to be a conservative? >> no, what i'm saying is it is ver

whether the white house or waffle house, what difference does it make if the information is reliable and authentic? it just so happens, devin had to do it this way. we want take advice from senator schumer. >> martha: everybody is wondering who the sources, who called him, there is a story about how he received a text and his car, with other staffers. got out of the car quickly, left, went to the white house, we now know, view to the documents, then, goes back to show them to the president. that lines up to appear that the person who revealed all of this to him as either in the white house or was associated with the white house. the narrative on that has changed in the past two press briefings. let's watch. >> will you rule out that the white house or anyone in the trump administration give chairman nunes the information? >> i'm not aware of it but it doesn't pass the smell test. speak it appears there was cooperation in this process. the white house granted chairman nunez -- >> i will be glad to take a look at that and figure out whether it is accurate. >> martha: the door is open t

why is that intelligence official in the white house? is he detailed to a white house office? is he simply working in the white house in an office space there? these are all questions that could help explain these issues and could tell us whether or not devin nunes needs to recuse himself or not. >> sandra: if we could finish with the sally yates story. "the washington post" saying the trump administration tried to block her from testifying on russia. we just heard sean spicer and the white house saying that is not the case. >> yeah. i mean, look. "the washington post" article seems to leave a little more than what the evidence suggests. there's not enough information. again, this is a recurring theme here, whether or not the doj's letter to sally yates' attorney. there's no evidence that that's the case. there's no evidence that chairman nunes cancelled the hearing in order to follow what the white house direction. there's a lot of suggestion in this "washington post" article. >> sandra: makes me wondering how much is the conversation coming out of the white house. we'll leav

it had to do with russia and the trump white house unbelievably, specifically these reports that white house officials gave gop intelligence chairman nunes an assist when he slipped into the white house grounds last week to view intelligence. those documents according to nunes may show that members of the trump team were somehow caught up in u.s. surveillance of foreign nationals. "the washington post" reports three senior white house officials are involved in this. one of them the top lawyer for the national security council. earlier in the day, "the new york times" got on the board, the first to reveal two white house officials helped nunes view the eyes-only material. "the times" story broke in time for today's white house briefing. >> sean, are you saying that it is not correct? >> i'm saying in order to comment on that story would be to validate certain things that i'm not at liberty to do. >> did the president direct anyone in this white house or the national security team to try to find information or intelligence to back up his assertion about wiretapping? >> i don't -- i'm not

if i were in the white house, i would be thinking, this is a guy we fired, a guy a lot of white house aides said pretty negative things about. i don't get the sense he has much loyalty anymore to the trump administration, and so if the fbi's investigation is as broad as comey suggested last week, i'd be a little bit worried if i were in the white house right now because flynn knows everything, right? >> anderson, when i hear a witness say, through his lawyers, i have a story to tell, that's very very aggressive by the defense attorneys and very suggestive that flynn has something of substance to put on the table to trade for a deal. that's an unusual statement to hear from a defense attorney. >> do you think it suggests -- would you say it suggests there's something else here that maybe did something worse and that's what i'm getting at or is that too vague? >> yes. i would say the only way you get an immunity deal is if you're trading somebody else for your scalp. this certainly would suggest he has information about possibly improper, possibly criminal activity. obviously we don't k

the white house on that even though it was there at the white house co

one of the nice things about the white house to many people is that the public can get pretty close to that is, i thinker perceived that it is the people's house. do you, for example, expand the fence from where it is now further out as was done previously in the 1990s? those are the kind of questions i think that have to be balanced but security by its nature is always a balance. there's a freedom and there's the need for security restrictions. >> yeah, okay, thank you so much for that. since that's your beat i wanted to get your thought on that. eliza to you now, on what we've been talking about for the other part of the last past hour. and that's healthcare. and as you saw, the vice president and he was out there talking with small business owners in kentucky. this is really -- you know, based on the complexities of that statement, you have rand paul, this is his back yard. you have state that is certainly at least by the statistics benefitted from obamacare, yet in this new scenario of the repeal and replace effort by republicans. that could change and make it worse for many kentuc

. >> let's talk about the facts tonight, the facts about this white house and those close to it and ties to russia. we want to show you a flowchart just so that everybody can follow along because it's con fusing, there are facts about house security advisor michael flynn's russian ties during the campaign. he sat beside an anti-propaganda network which the kremlin paid flynn $100,000 to attend. and he discussed sanctions with russian's ambassador sergey kislayak and then lied about to the vice president and others and the fact that it cost him his job as national security advisor. that's a fact. then there's the facts about president trump's son-in-law jared kushner. kushner also met with the ambassador, his also met with russian ambassador surkov in 2015. and paul manafort also partnered with a russian oligark to benefit the putin government. fact, former policy advisor of some sort, carter paige, worked in russia for about three years, and travelled to russia over the summer while he had been named a close advisor to the president. then, that same month, carter paige spoke to ambassado

the white house has yet to explain why senior white house staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee only for their contents to be briefed back to the white house. ken, the story goes on. what do you think? >> so what's significant about this, greta, is what i've started to suspect. if there was really something improper and explosive in tse documents nunes was talking about, the white house would have just released them to both parties, to the full committee because on its face it would have been a scandal or something worthy of investigation. if adam schiff, a former federal prosecutor, went in there and looked at them, we can accuse him of being a partisan but he's concerned about people's privacy and if he went in there and looked and said -- he's not really saying but he hasn't said that there was any particular improper sharing of names, as nunes has implied or improper unmasking of u.s. person names, perhaps there wasn't and perhaps that's the whole reason they went through this charade of laundering this information through nunes who had two

joe john is at the white house. a rare apology from the trump white house, not on the wiretapping claims, but on a, quote, supposedly unintentional slip by the white house press secretary sean spicer while defending the president's comments on trump tower surveillance. take a listen to what sean spicer said yesterday. >> on fox news, on march 14, judge andrew napolitano made the statement, three officials toed fox news the president obama went outside the chain of command and didn't use the nsa, fbi and the department of justice, he used gc hq. it's the initials for the british intelligence spying agency, president obama said he needs transcripts and there is no american fingerprints on this. >> let me bring in our cnn diplomatic editor, nic robertson joining us from 10 downing street. it was pretty shocking to hear sean spicer quote from a report on fox news by a legal contributor, a legal analyst, judge andrew napolitano, alleging that the british intelligence was actually spying on donald trump during the campaig

that's the day before he rushed to the white house or now i guess we should say rushed back to the white house and announced that president trump's communications may have been incidentally intercepted during surveillance. now, at the time chairman nunes refused to say how he learned this, but today's admission raise the question of whether someone in the white house or at least in the administration was his source. it comes as democrats say the house committee cannot move forward with an impartial investigation, and now senate minority leader chuck schumer just called on the senate floor for speaker ryan to remove chairman nunes as the chair of the intelligence committee. meanwhile, the senate intelligence committee is set to hold its first public hearing this week, this as cnn has confirmed one of the president's close advisers, his son-in-law, jared kushner, will testify about his meetings with russian officials, including reportedly a russian banker. cnn's jessica schneider is following all of this for us. we want to start with the house intelligence chairman nunes today. the white h

meantime, the white house is not denying a "new york times" report that at least two white house national security staffers provided house intelligence committee chairman devin nunes with intelligence reports. in a day of fast-moving developments, the white house also released a letter inviting house and senate intelligence committees to review new documents related to the potential unauthorized disclosure of classified information about u.s. persons. here's the part that grabbed our attention. quote, in light of recent disclosures, regarding possible inappropriate accumulation or dissemination of classified information, eg, the comments of former deputy assistant secretary of defense, evelyn farkas, our hope is that the committee will continue to investigate the following questions. goes onto outline five question. what grabbed our attention is the mention of evelyn farkas, a name that's new to most people, but a name that jack kingston brought up in the past hour. in recent days in certain circles, she's become a major talking point. randi kaye reports. >> a former defense department em

now the fact he was down here necessarily not the white house but the white house complex, so it could have been the eisenhower executive office building, to actually collect this information that he then disseminated first via the press and then to the president and then to the press again really sort of adds yet another layer to the intrigue of how connected is he to the white house versus how independent is the investigation on capitol hill. >> jenna: is worth underscoring the environment we are in where there are leaks all over the place, no one knows where they are coming from. if he was legally supposed to look at these classified or top-secret documents, by law you are supposed to view them in a scif, not just at a laptop at work, you have to be in a secure room and there only a few places where the network allows that. >> correct, and again that spokesman said you cannot put these in a backpack and take them to capitol hill so someone could view them, so he came to the white house. again adding another layer of intrigue to all of this. the source of this information now appears

in the first place about the fact that flynn had misled the vice president and the white house s conversations with the russian ambassador, she wanted to testify before the house committee. the justice department said you'll have to ask the white house. there's questions of executive privilege here. the white house didn't want to invoke executive privilege. nunes cancelled the hearings so she couldn't testify anyway. this question of the relationship of nunes, the man is supposed to be leading an independent investigation of donald trump and the white house and the relations with russia, his relationship and apparent cooperation with the trump white house is really quite interesting. >> it's interesting and to many there, i would assume, troubling. what is the buzz around town on this? >> people are distraught. devin nunes is a straight guy. i've dealt with him before. he was part of donald trump's national security transition team. so he was, you know, in a sense a little bit compromised anyway. if there was anybody that had to bend over backwards not to show any cooperation wi

abc's senior white house correspondent cecilia vega at the white house. >> our incredible coal miners. >> reporter: surrounded by coal miners today, the president, with the stroke of a pen, signing a sweeping order to roll back most of president obama's climate change legacy. >> with today's executive action, i am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on american energy, to reverse government intrusion, and to cancel job-killing regulations. >> reporter: the order calls for a review of rules curbing carbon emissions in the u.s. it strikes rules mandating that climate change be considered in federal policymaking. and it does not address the 2015 paris climate deal, an international agreement to cap greenhouse gas emissions. >> we are going to put our coal miners back to work! >> reporter: today, president trump said miners he's met want to get back to work. >> and i said, "how about this? why don't we get together, we'll go to another place, and you'll get another job. you won't mine anymore. do you like that idea?" they said, "no, we don't like that idea. we love to mine. tha

>> did it come from the white house? >> we have to keep our sources and methods very, very quiet. >> he wasn't willing to rule that out. it gets more and more mystifying. >> today the house is voting to repeal and replace the disasr known as obamacare. >> he doesn't know that the vote on obamacare has delayed. >> this president has essentially campaigned on being a deal maker. >> if you can't make a good deal with a politician, there's something wrong with you, you're certainly not very good. [ horn honking ] >>> yesterday, devin nunes did something stunning. >>> yesterday, devin nunes did something stunning. something that no intelligence committee chairman before him had ever done. today he apologized for it, which is something else that no chairman ever does. because a chairman is supposed to be smart enough to never cause an insurrection on their own committee with members calling for his resignation, calling for him to be fired, demanding that speaker paul ryan remove him from that chairmanship. in a closed door meet

he did not discuss whether anyone in the white house authorized him to get on white house grounds. i asked schiff about that and he said it did not come up in the conversation. schiff raising a profound concern that the information that the white house is suddenly making available to them comes at the same day as this "new york times" report suggesting two white house officials were involved in authorizing mr. nunes to review this information, saying that why all of the, quote, cloak and dagger in providing this information to the committee as, you know, when all of these questions have been raised about whether or not the white house was involved in any way. so a major question about whether or not this investigation can go forward and whether or not the white house was involved in trying to undercut this investigation. i tried to get schiff on that directly, do you think the white house tried to undercut this investigation in any way, you're hinting at it. he would not go there, saying he wants to see the information first but raising concerns about how the whole thing played out

even sean spicer earlier today not saying whether or not that came from the white house. he is saying he does want to hear from james comey and a bipartisan agreement to brief the house intelligence committee and there's no bipartisan agreement yet. not for the briefing to take place, wolf. >> manu, thank you. man u wrath u up on the hill. and standing firmly on the house intelligence committee devin nunes and credibility of his russian investigation. but administration appears unwilling to clear up any of the mysteries surrounding nunes's claims about surveillance of the trump transition team or unusual review of information on white house grounds. let's go to our senior white house correspondent jim acosta. jim, you and other journalists continue to press the white house press secretary sean spicer on this. >> that's right, wolf. it is becoming a daily ritual on the white house press briefing. reporters ask officials what they know about devin nunes's mysterious trip to the white house. and aides to the president don't seem to have many answers. white house secretary sea

over here to the white house complex to look at more information certainly begs the question, why didn't they do that in the first place as opposed to only having the house intelligence committee chairman, a republican over, to look at it in a quiet matter and then have the dramatic announcement the next day. sean spicer said he did not know, he would have to get more information about whether the president had been briefed on all of this new information. brook, to me, that raises the question again, was the president surprised the afternoon that devin nunes came here to the white house to present him that information. it certainly was presented as a surprise. i was in the briefing room that day. i later asked the president if he felt vindicated. he said somewhat. now with all of this other information that's coming out, brook, it's beginning to look like in fact that may not be a surprise at all and raises questions on all of this. so now we'll see how the intelligence officials, the ranking members and the chairman on both the house and senate side, how they respond to this. if they co

white house can go to. but after the man was apprehended and the grounds were searched, the security situation was put back to normal. i can tell you i've been here since about 9:00 this morning and there was really no sign that anything had happened here in the past 24 hours. it was a relatively quiet morning before we heard these reports come out. the white house is back to operating at normal, but this was certainly a major security breach that happened here last night. >> we understand donald trump tweeting about the health care gop plan even in the midst of perhaps all of this early this morning in terms of the amount of time that you're been at the white house. let's also bring in tom fuentes and jonathan. thanks to both of you to join us. tom, let me get your impressions on what we've learned by way of ryan's reporting, cnn reporting, about the security breach. what are your concerns here? >> well, i think as ryan mentioned, this took all night before secret service made a public announcement for tha

today he may be weak might make his way over to the white house to review some of the same documents the house chairman intelligence community chairman devin nunes viewed last week at the white house. in his response to the white house invitation yesterday, adam schiff said that it is also important the full committee be able to have a chance to review those documents, and he also stressed that the documents alone will not be enough to determine if there was a legal surveillance happening. >> that is impossible to do without consulting the agencies to find out how the materials were gathered and why there was a need to know in case of any unmasking of names. this is not something that is going to be apparent on the face of the documents. >> the white house has also invited the top members of the senate intelligence committee to come and view those documents at the white house as well, but that if mike invitation has been the client and instead the senate intelligence committee has requested those documents be sent to them directly from the agencies that collected the information. >> d

he's goes to the white house grounds.s to eye private room there to obviously look at this information. he briefs the president. he doesn't brief democrats. he doesn't even brief his own republicans. he comes out and says what he's really concerned about is the so-called unmasking of names, which is a real concern because american citizens, if there's kind of surveillance and they're just sort of isn't bystanders, their names are generally masked. but don't forget. we have to look at this and consider the context. the context is going back to the president's initial, you know, series of tweets that saturday morning, what is it, three weeks ago now? that saturday morning -- >> hold on, gloria. sa sean spicer's briefing is beginning. >> i'd like to have the attorney general come up to the podium to make an announcement regarding immigration. when he's done speaking we'll have time for a couple questions and then i'll continue with the briefing briefing. if your question sent germane to sanctuary cities, keep your hand down.

yates needs to check with the white house. then a letter was sent to the white house. it said "if i do not receive a response by march 27, i will conclude the white house does not exert executive privilege". the white house never responded to the letter. that was de facto. a tacit approval of her going before the committee. and then of course we found out today the hearing was not going to happen. devin nunes saying the hearing was never officially scheduled. they wanted to make sure they would hear from comey in a closed-door session so they would have more information to talk to people in the open session, that would includes yates, bremer and clapper as well. it was a big topic as you can imagine in the white house press briefing. i asked sean spicer about it. >> there's reports that the hearing that was set for the 27th was not scheduled, it was cancelled by devin nunes to prevent this white house from publicly invoking a claim of executive privilege. can you speak to that? >> the report in the post is 100% false. the letters this they publish on their website all

she went and warned the white house council that mike flynn did not tell the truth and in turn, the white house did not tell the truth about that. the white house's answer when they were confronted with that -- and remember they didn't do anything, they kept him on board, and their answer was that she came and gave us a heads up, she didn't make clear what was being investigated, and i think when you look at these letters, it is clear they will contradict what the white house said. >> as someone that has been in the white house for a long time, are you excited about what you're seeing in the white house intelligence meeting. >> i'm surprised that chairman nunez is acting in such a partisan matter. they have skirmishes, but we see it time and time again. the other thing that surprises me is how enempt it has been. it makes it of he was just trying to get out of it. you can't get in, it's like a comedy act. >> i think it is very tough for chairman new tez to try to continue to lead this investigation. technically he can continue to lead it as long as his colleagues support him. it has to be

the man you see here works in the white house council's office. he was formerly a staffer on the house intelligence community maiden name named michael ellis. the other figure is the controversial young intelligence chief. after michael flynn was fired at nationals adviser, it was widely reported mcmaster was given free reign to staff the council as he saw fit. that promise apparently led general mcmaster to believe he would be safe and fine in firing ezra cohen watt nick who had come in with mike flynn who reportedly was the source of strong objections from the intelligence area, particularly from the cia. mcmaster, he tried to fire that kid. but according to "politico," this protege when he found out the national security adviser wanted to fire him, he appealed directly to jared, the president's son-in-law. so he was brushed back and told to keep this guy even though he didn't want him. "the new york times" describes him, the two of them as having played a role in providing this miss tierous information. "the new york times" named those two. then

he received them on white house grounds and he'd been to the white house the night before. he told us then that he would get us these documents. we have yet to receive them. >> congressman, one last question. you have to answer in it 10 to 15 seconds. the white house is calling your chairman and your ranking member over to the white house to get some top secret information. what do you make of that? >> i think there's a legitimate separation of powers here. we should not be coordinating in any way with the white house why we are investigating the white house. the fbi is underway. the senate is underway. frankly, i'll tell you this. i wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if there are not local prosecutors now beginning to investigate some of these issues circling around russian interference in the 2016 election. specifically mr. manafort's real estate disease. and i have to say the, go zags. >> abusing your opportunity there. i appreciate it. that will do it for me. i'm katy the tur. >>> a busy afternoon. we're going on start just where she left off with the breaking news

house and senate, inviting them to look at information that the white house believes is very helpful and i should point out i just talked to a source with one of the intelligence committees over in the house, the house intelligence committee that they have received that letter at this point they are not elaborating as to what's in the letter but they have received it and so this is certainly a work in progress on a day where there's a lot of turmoil over here at the white house. there was a staff shakeup announced earlier today where it was announced that the deputy chief of staff katie walsh is leaving the white house for an outside group helping promote the president's agenda. no question about it, that news was overshadowed in a major fashion by this report in "the new york times" that the white house is just not really acknowledging at this point, brook. >> so just quickly, though, to follow up, jim, if the white house had this information and they were concerned about this information and instead of potentially calling mr. nunes and knowing that both the house and intel senate a

that perhaps the white house was behind this, something that the white house has thrown cold water on but something democrats are concerned about, schiff also making news saying democrats continue to be part of this investigation going forward they will not boycott this investigation because in mr. schiff's view he believes in democrats do not participate there will not be an investigation into russia and contact coordination between trump officials during the eex will -- election. yesterday talking about potential collusion between russians and the trump officials and some new evidence that he says he has seen. take a listen. >> the kind of evidence that you would submit to a grand jury at the beginning of a investigation. it's not the kind of evidence you take to a trial jury when you're trying to prove something beyond a reasonable doubt but we are at the beginning of a investigation an given thegraphdy the gravity of the subject matter -- >> reporter: is there new evidence that makes you think it is more than just circumstantial? >> we have received additional evidence and new mat

jeff, you were there at the white house news conference in the east room of the white house. the president is clearly doubling down. >> reporter: wolf, the president did stand by those allegations that he was wire tapped by president obama that are now some two weeks old. they've been debunked across washington by democrats and republicans alike but not the president. suddenly this is now escalating into something of an international incident. the white house tonight can't even agree on whether it apologized, expressed regret, or whether it should have. president trump did not back down today from his unproven claim that president obama wire tapped him at trump tower. >> as far as wire tapping, i guess, by this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps. >> reporter: meeting with german chancellor, angela merkel, the president referenced past reports that merkel's phone had once been tapped by the nsa. the president also did not apologize to the british government for suggesting that british spies were behind the wire tapping. >> and just to finish you

anything further today from the white house? >> no, wolf. but i think this question is going to come up during the briefing once again, and mainly because the department of justice, as you said, asked the house intelligence committee for more time. they're going to be given more time, from what we understand, from talking to the house intelligence committee, until next monday when a hearing is scheduled on this. the house intelligence committee, keep in mind, led by republicans, warning the trumpstration, we need to have evidence by next monday or we're going to ask about this at this hearing. and if we don't have it, we may have to revort to what they're calling a, quote, compulsory measure or compulsory process in order to extract that evidence from the trump administration. but wolf, as you know from the last nine or ten days that we have been going over this, the white house has not provided one shred of evidence to back up the president's claim at this point. that's why you heard the white house press secretary sean spicer saying yesterd

and that he met with an intelligence official and not a white house staffer. very confusing revelations here. joining me to discuss, more, break them down a little bit, michael allen, former republican staff director on the house intelligence committee, also served as a national security council staffer under president george w. bush. so he knows nunes' committee, h he knows its workers, he knows this community very well. thank you for joining us. let me just ask you, at a basic level here, you have nunes on white house grounds, not in the white house, says he's not meeting with a white house staffer but needed to be there apparently for some security reason. he obtained some kind of information that leaves him to come out and say he believes trump or people around trump were inappropriately included in intelligence reports. what do you make of this? does this sound like a credible story? a plausible story to you? what's your reaction upon hearing snhear ing this? >> my reaction it, it sounds like chairman nunes has a whistleblower, something we encourage in th

white house press secretary sean spicer called this report 100% false. the house intelligence committee has now canceled all meetings this week amid the ongoing turmoil, as lawmakers call on nunes to step down as chair, after it emerged he'd met with a source on the grounds of the white house and viewed secret u.s. intelligence reports before supposedly briefing president trump about the reports. nunes says the reports indicate trump or his associates might have been "incidentally" swept up in surveillance carried out by american spy agencies as they conducted foreign surveillance. nunes continues to reject the calls to step down and to this day has not shared the secret reports with fellow committee members. we'll have more on the house intelligence committee investigation and the ongoing turmoil after headlines. president trump is trying to argue that because he's president, he is immune from a defamation lawsuit filed by a former "apprentice" contestant who has accused him of sexual assault. summer zervos says trump repeatedly sexually assaulted her du

this ally of the trump white house said you put a great cloud over this white house. it was clear that his goal was to run down to the white house. he is under from the white house and what do you assess the credibility of him to be tonight? >> i don't have the slightest idea. he has a history that would make us doubt his credibility. more important, i think that the press essentially needs to report as aggressively as we can what facts can be obtained about these allegations that nunez is making. apart from that, we are seeing today and tonight why we need a special prosecutor. there is abundant evidence that something happened in terms of those in the campaign of donald trump and the russian leaks of these e-mails that requires a kind of impartiality that only a special prosecutor under what we are seeing here on the air from these guys on this committee. we need a special prosecutor, particularly given the bombshell story not just the cnn story, but the ap story today about proposing on paper that he can do things for putin a few years back and that's what he wants