[laughter] lisa: there s that, and there s also this. new reaction to former fbi agent peter strzok suing the fbi and the doj over firing. strzok became known for sending inflammatory text message about president trump during the russian investigation, which also eventually got him removed from robert mueller steam. strzok also played a key role in the eller clinton email probe. but now his lawyers are saying, it s indisputable that his termination was the result of president trump s unrelenting retaliatory campaign of false information, attacks, and direct appeals to top officials. former chairman trey gowdy dismissing claims that president trump pressured the fbi to fire him. watch what had to say. peter strzok need blame no one other than himself for writing what he wrote. he was unfit to investigate either of the presidential candidates. how this is going to turn out? i don t know. it s a d.c., i don t know what a jury is going to do with him,
whatever this inquiry was. this is on top of the inspector general also pursuing an inquiry along these same lines. this memo tonight, we don t exactly know what it means, but it makes it seem like they re somehow trying to clear a path for whatever it is that barr is doing. it s not totally clear what this it s not tot means yet. i want to tell you, we did get one really interesting response to this news just a moment ago from someone who was there for the early stages of the russia investigation and also for the clinton email probe. when this memo was released tonight, we contacted david laufman, who was chief of counterintelligence at the justice department under president obama, who served at the beginning of the trump administration as well. he was there as the chief of counterintelligence at the justice department when the russia investigation was opened. david laufman tells us tonight that this new decision by the president is, a grotesque abuse of the intelligence community to
investigation and also for the clinton email probe. when this memo was released tonight, we contacted david lofman, who was chief of counterintelligence at the justice department under president obama, who served at the beginning of the trump administration as well. he was there as the chief of counterintelligence at the justice department when the russia investigation was opened. david lofman tells us tonight that this new decision by the president is a grotesque abuse of the intelligence community to further his goal of political retribution, made worse by the spectacle of the justice department as his handmaiden. so, again, i think that s the first response we ve had from a senior justice department official, former justice department official who was involved in the origins of this inquiry tonight. but again, david laufman calling this a grotesque abuse of the intelligence committee. chairman jerry nadler joins us next. stay with us. r joins us
capitol hill. ainsley: former attorney general loretta lynch accusing james comey of misrepresenting a key conversation in the clinton email probe. steve: griff jenkins joins us live in washington, d.c. griff, we are hearing details from a closed door hearing on january the 19th of last year. good morning, steve, ainsley and brian. it turns out of the former attorney general did not take kindly to being accused of instructing her former fbi director on the semantics of the clinton email probe. remember when james comey said this under oath? we were getting to a place where the attorney general and i were both going to have to testify and talk publicly about it and i wanted to know was she going to authorize us to confirm we had an investigation and she said said yes but don t call it that. call it a matter. i said why would i do that? and she said just call it a matter. that. claim left lynch, quote, quite surprised. according to transcripts on capitol hill last december releas