House democrats on the Judiciary Committee said two things. They dont believe on the merits should the president try and invoke executive privilege it would work. If he did, they point out the political ramifications. That it would look like he was trying to obstruct the testimony. These are two key consideration the white house will have to Pay Attention to as they look forward. As you noted, we dont have an answer. The day before comey appears, the Deputy Attorney general will also testify. Reporter thats right. Separate hearing, separate focus. The big question is, what can members of get out of both Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein but everybody else on the panel . The acting fbi director, the cia director and the director of the nsa. All of these individuals have played some role one way or another in this russia investigation. The reality is, what we have seen over the last couple weeks is all questions will be deferred to the special counsel, bob mueller. Thats the posture everybody is taking. What will be more interesting to watch, how the senators conduct themselves. This will be laying the groundwork for the hearing, the bigger hearing, the main event that follows. Members on both sides of the aisle, how they set themselves up for the big hearing 24 hours later will be very interesting to see. Probably a very good indicator of things to come. Theres new reporting about why director comey may not have reported the alleged pressure, the pressure the president put on him to ease off the investigation. Reporter this is really important. This is something you are going to hear from republicans on thursday almost certainly. If you had such problems with the president s actions, why didnt you report them . Why didnt you resign . Here is what we are hearing from a source familiar with james comeys thinking. He thought the actions in isolation, the idea of telling jim comb yeey to back off the investigation into Michael Flynn, were the actions of a ham handed individual that didnt understand the separation process between the law enforce m enforcement. Comey viewed this as a training process. Getting the president comfortable with how the relationship was supposed to work. He didnt believe they raised to the level of something that needed to be reported. All put together, and most notably concluding with the firing of james comey, that raises a question as to whether obstruction was actually taking place. Something we will almost certainly hear james comey questioned about at that hearing. Thanks very much. Thats how a source describes james comeys thinking in the early weeks of the trump administration. Hold that as we review the events and interactions that comey will testify about on thursday. Randi kaye has more. Reporter in january, this year, a dinner at the white house. Now under jut any. Dining together, donald trump and james comey. Mr. Trump had been sworn in seven dayserer. On that night, the president asked comey to pledge his loyalty to him. Comey instead offering to give the president his honesty. The president had a very different account of that dinner meeting when he spoke to nbc last month. I think he asked for dinner. He wanted to stay on as the fbi head. I said, i will consider it. We will see what happens. Reporter the white house pushed back on the loyalty question. In the dinner the president had with james comey earlier in january, did the president implore him to pledge his loyalty to the president . Is that true . No. Reporter the president says comey also told him at dinner that he was not under investigation and that comey repeated it again twice later. That time he told me, you are not under investigation. During the phone call he said it. Then during another phone call he said it. He said it once at dinner and then he said it twice during phone calls. Did you ask, am i under investigation . Yes. I said, if its possible, will you let me know, am i under investigation . He said, you are not under investigation. Why was the president so consumed by this that he would ask that question on three separate occasions . I think because the narrative continued to be perpetuated. He wanted clarity. Reporter on february 14, another key moment between President Trump and director comey, this time in the oval office. Sources say comey documented the meeting in a memo which was described to cnn. Comey says the president ushered others out of the room, including the vicepresident , then that trump allegedly asked comey to drop the investigation into general Michael Flynns contacts with russia. Flynn was fired as Trumps National security adviser after admitting to inappropriate contacts with russia. A source told cnn comey was so surprised by the president s request he documented everything he could remember for senior fbi officials. In his memo, comey said the president told him, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go. A source told cnn, comey was concerned that the president was trying to stop the investigation. Did you at any time urge former fbi director james comey in any way, shape or form to close or back down the investigation into Michael Flynn . Also, as you no. No. Next question. Reporter despite that, just days after firing comey in may, President Trump dropped this bombshell. Suggesting he let comey go because of the russia investigation. When i decided to just do it i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. Reporter of course, that only raised more questions about the possibility of obstruction of justice. Given comeys testimony before congress were conducting an investigation to understand whether there was any coordination between the russian efforts and anybody associated with the Trump Campaign. Reporter a friend of james comey spoke to Anderson Cooper about how comey thought personal contact with the president was inappropriate. This is a guy with a story to tell. I think if i were donald trump, that would scare me a lot. He did feel like there were these numerous incidents where the president was kind of probing the edges of his defenses. And all in the service of making him a seeing whether you could make a loyalist out of him. Reporter it wasnt just james comey the president may have been trying to influence. In march, just days after comey revealed the fbi probe into possible Trump Campaign connections to russia, the president asked two of the governments top intelligence chiefs to publically deny evidence of collusion between his team and the russian government. Sources tell cnn both the director of National Intelligence dan coats and National SecurityAgency Director admiral Michael Rogers were uncomfortable with the nature of the president s request and refused to comply. The white house declined to comment and so did director coats when asked by the Senate Armed Services committee. I dont feel its appropriate to characterize discussions and conversations with the president. Congress needs to find out whether there was an active effort to interfere with the investigation or to draw in the intelligence agencies or their leadership in a way that would poe l pol politicize it. A lot of to discuss. Looking ahead to next week, do we know about what comey is going to say . We know he has been trying to figure out what the restrictions are on what he is allowed to talk about. Our expectation is he will talk about how he felt about the approaches that President Trump made to him with relation to the russian investigation, with relation to Michael Flynn, the ousted National Security adviser. He is going to be very careful to say within the parameters of what he is allowed to do without tripping up any legal question not talking about the actual fbi investigation . Correct. In the same way we saw him in these congressional committees testifying he was very careful to say that its something i cant talk about, you should not take my answer as a yes or no but i cant speak of it. You will hear a fair amount of that. I think that you will hear him speaking in his own words, not through friends, speaking on background, not through aides or used to work with him about how he felt about his interactions with the president. It has the chance to be explosive. As far as this notion that director comey may not have thought of any individual action taken alone as conty institu co obstruction of justice, does that make sense to you . Yes. I think each action taken by itself may not trigger the law, so to speak. But i do think its more important that director comey may be disturbed by the pattern and the pattern, if you look at the from early on whether allegedly the president asked him for his loyalty and then he asked him to drop the case. When he wouldnt drop the case with flynn, the president fired him. If you look at the in between conversations, that pattern is more damning than any one element would be. It may explain why he didnt tell anybody or he kept his notes but didnt tell anybody about what was in them, didnt report it. Do we know, will the notes be read . Can he use those notes . Im not certain how detailed he can get into that. My assumption is that he can rely on them. Im not certain he is able to sit there and go through what he said. He will have to do some real time memory essentially. I think he is familiar with at this point, we dont know ifhouse is going to try for executive privilege. We are living in Donald Trumps world. They are looking at all of their options. Theres a recognition by some in the white house, if not everybody, that exerting that privilege would be very, very problematic on its own in terms of the optics, in terms of how it would be received by people who have been defending the president. I think frankly this was a point made to me by somebody a little bit ago. The president is probably looking forward to watching this testimony on some level. I think that he enjoys the show of it for lack of a better way. He enjoys it . I dont think it fully set in the severity potentially of what is going on right now for a lot of people around the white house. Im not sure it has for the president either just based on what he is saying and he continues tweeting despite the fact that lawyers and white House Counsel and his aides have all said, please be careful, because you are creating a chain of evidence. What is better for the president , letting comey testify publically about their conversation or blocking him, which to maggies point could make it seem like some administration is trying to hide something. It would be a terrible mistake politically to invoke executive privilege here t. Would be challenged legally. I think it does send a signal what is he trying to hide . Further more, we all know that comey is ultimately going to be talking under oath to the fbi investigators. His story will eventually come out one way or the other. To get into this now and try to hide him, recognizing that one day the story is going to come out in full, i dont know what you are accomplishing. Better off for the white house tomorrow, not wait, not review, not spend time on it, clear the deck, say were going to allow him to testify. Its fascinating thursday. Thanks. Theres more breaking news. Putin is speaking out about the Election Hacking and what he thinks about the entire controversy. How the president can drop american paprticipation at the paris accord. The question now is why doesnt the white house say what he thinks about it . [ dog whimpers ] man lets go man 2 were not coming out man 1 [ sighs ] flo [ amplified ] i got this. Guys, i know being a firsttime homeowner is scary, but you dont have to do this. Man 2 what if a tree falls on our garage . Woman what if a tornado rips off our roof . Flo youre covered. And youve bundled your home and auto insurance, so youre saving a ton. Come on. You dont want to start your new life in a dirty old truck. Man 3 hey. Man 1 whoa, whoa. Flo sorry. Woman oh. Flo youre safe. Youre safe now. Woman i think im gonna pass out. 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How if guests book direct ater, choicehotels. Com and stay twice theyll get a 50 gift card . Summertime. Badda book. Badda boom. Got you a shirt . I kept the receipt. Book now at choicehotels. Com at a business round table today, Vladimir Putin reset his compass and did another 180. He is denying russia had anything to do with hacking the u. S. Election. He ridiculed the reaction to President Trumps decision to pull out of the paris accord. Reporter it was trademark Vladimir Putin, appearing on stage in an Interview Forum today, the leader surprised the audience in english. Dont worry, be happy. Reporter invoking the singer sarcastically describing the anger around President Trumps decision to pull out of the paris Climate Change agreement. In his native spy, he was far less sunny. Continuing to deny russian interference in the u. S. President ial election. While attacking former candidate Hillary Clinton saying her Campaign Just cant admit its own mistakes caused her loss. Translator they decided to say its not our fault, its the russians fault. Its like antisemitism, to blame the jews for everything. We know what this can lead to. Nothing good. Reporter at the same time, putin spoke of Donald Trumps successful campaign. Translator the trump team was more effective during the election campaign. He found an approach to the electorate that worked for him. Reporter he wasnt done there. On the heels of his comment thursday that russian patriots, not the government, might have hanged t hacked the election, he referred to u. S. Intelligence reports on the hacking. Translator i read these reports. There is Nothing Specific in these reports. Just assumptions and conclusions. Reporter he denied any discussions about sanctions between his government and the Incoming Trump administration. Tonight, analysts say putin is looking for deniability, trying to prevent them tracing anything to him. It appears he is loving the attention and the strife inside the u. S. Political system. He has a president who wants to have better relations with russia. He has a scandal that has weakened the u. S. President and he has a u. S. President who is busy lecturing his best allies about climate and about nato. Theres lots of things that putin is enjoying about the crisis. Reporter Vladimir Putin came to the defense of the man who works for him here in washington, Russian AmbassadorSergei Kislyak who is at the center of the investigation into trumps aides contacts with the russians. Putin said our ambassador met with someone. Thats what the ambassador must do. He said reports of secret deals before the inauguration are, quote, hysteria and said, quote, how should we stop that, take a pill or something. We also reached out to Hillary Clintons representatives for response to Vladimir Putins putins about her campaign. They declined to comment. Brian todd, thanks very much. A look inside the white house Decision Making process on the paris pullout. 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