Whistle blower complaint. St this is deeply troubling. Then overnight the Washington Post is saying that its the president. Communications that the president had with a foreign leader. The Washington Post cites former Officials Saying that trumps interaction included a quoteunquote promise so troubling this intellofficial felt compelled to report to to the Inspector General. Right now theyre behind closed doors with chairman schiff and others presumably answering questions about why the whistle blower complaint hasnt been turned over still. The one thing we know is that decision was made by the acting director of National Intelligence. In a letter to chairman schiff, the dni office explained it like this. This complaint concerned conduct by someone outside the Intelligence Committee and community, rather, and did not relate to any intelligence activity under the dni supervision. The letter goes on to explain it this way. It involves confidential and potentially privileged matters relating to the interests of other stakeholders within the executive branch. Does that include a promise, though . And will the congress ever get the details of this complaint . More burning questions in washington at this very moment. Lets get to it. Manu raju is on the hill. Sarah is here also. This puts it on President Trump, what this whistle blower complaint is about. What are you hearing from the white house this morning . Well, kate, were hearing from President Trump for the first time this morning reacting to the story moments agoment he tweeted his first response, writing another fake news story out there. It never ends. Virtually any time i speak on the phone to a foreign leader, i understand that there will be many people listening from various u. S. Agencies, not to mention from the other country itself. No problem. He says, knowing all of this, is anybody dumb enough to believe i would Say Something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially heavily populated call. I only do good for usa. In the handling of this complaint after house intelligence chairman adam schiff said there was a Higher Authority before the director of National Intelligence slow walking information getting to congress and we have seen contradictions between two trump appointees, the Intelligence CommunityInspector General is a trump appointee. This complaint is credible and urgent. The acting director of intelligence, also a trump appointee owe doesnt think it meets the definition of urgent concerns. Those contradictions have to be ironed out with lawmakers. We have no idea who the foreign leader is that President Trump was speaking to when this alleged promise arose. We know in the weeks leading up to the complaint the president spoke with a handful of leaders, including Vladimir Putin, north koreas kim jongun, the Prime Minister of pakistan, the dutch Prime Minister and the a miles an hour of qatar. Remember, it was filed on august 12th. More than a month ago. This entire episode could only deepen President Trumps suspicion of intelligence agencies as we know since the start of his presidency. Theres been a lot of mistrust, a lot of bad blood between the president and u. S. Intelligence agencies, kate. All right. Sarah, stick with me for one second. Let me get to manu. The house Intelligence Committee has been behind closed doors for hours now with the Inspector General. What are you hearing . Well, were not expecting them to learn about the nature and the substance of the complaint as well as exactly who that foreign leader was, what alleged promise the president made. Were expecting them to talk about the process of actually how that complaint was handled and there have been, of course, ample questions about that process and why the complaint has not been turned over to capitol hill. Something that chairman schiff says is a clear violation of federal law. That process is how thats being handled is what this major focus is going to be on today. So it appears that after this hearing, that probably will take place, probably will continue on for maybe another couple of hours potentially, there will be a lot more questions about who the president was speaking to, what exactly the whistle blower was alarmed about and next week when the acting director of National Intelligence, joe mcguire testifies in open session, there will be more questions for him there. Its clear today just the beginning of the process for this committee to learn exactly what happened. But theyll probably emerge saying they need to dig further to learn exactly what happened here. Kate . It will be fascinating if anyone from the committee, chairman chiffon down, comes to mike owe row phones and speaks and says we leave the session. Thank you, manu and sarah. I really appreciate it. As manu pointed out, there are a lot of questions here. Joining me is attorney bradley mossment he specializes in National Security issues and represented whistle blowers. And former Senior Adviser to the National Security adviser under president obama. Brad, youve represented whistle blowers. What do you think of this situation where the dni now is facing off with the house Intelligence Committee and disagreeing with the Inspector General . Look, i mean, were in uncharted territory here. As far as im concerned and aware, there has never been a whistle blower complaint brought to the Inspector General of the ic that was verified as credible and urgent concern that the dni refused to forward on to the relevant Intelligence Committees and certainly, this is news to me. This is the first time its involved the president. I want people to be aware of how this works. The urgent concern is not a simple matter of you know a difference of opinion about policy matters. Thats excluded by statute. This is something related to a serious flagrant violation of law concerning an operation of an intelligence activity. This whistle blower did everything right. They went through the process properly. Ive heard people, including some calling him a snitch. No, this person did it properly. Real quick, brad. The fact that there is a disagreement at the least between the dni and the ig about this very issue of urgent, does that surprise you . Because is that something that youre laying out that really there isnt a lot of gray area for . So the dnis dispute, as much as i dont liket i understand their concern. Theres wasnt a dispute on substance. It was on jurisdiction. This is an uncharted and unprecedented situation. Theyre saying we dont have any jurisdiction over this because the president doesnt fall under the dni super vievision. The president is the article 2 authority here. This was a problem of statutory concepts not envisioning this scenario existing in reality. Sam, now, the Washington Post reporting is that the issue is a promise that the president made to a foreign leader on possibly a phone calm. You would have to i guess assuming that this person, the whistle blower knows that a president can dee clclassify an information he wants to, that wasnt a problem of passing along overly sensitive information. With that assumption in mind, is there any way to define the universe of possibility of what that leaves . Kate, to for a president who its not a stretch to imagine why this is concerning to so many of us from a counterintelligence perspective. Declassification is the president s authority. But the president cant declassify something expecting something illegal from a foreign power in return, lets say. The authority is his but not if hes committing an illegal act. We dont know if the whistle blower complaint is related to a quid pro quo. What we do know is that this whistle blower as brad discussed, that this promise represented some kind of threat to National Security, a violation of law or harm to the public good. And the issue now is who else may have been on that call . The white house situation room, comprised of a variety of people, implements a call to a foreign leader, writes a transcript of the call, the National Security council writes a files it. Can the president say, everybody off . It would be highly unlikely for that to happen. There is a legal reason for that. Theres a president ial records act. The president could have implemented a call from his cell phone. But if this was a head of state call lets say to Vladimir Putin which the white house gave a readout of, the situation room would be involved in setting up the call and monitoring it. Lets see how to put this. Are there perfectly legal reasons, good reasons for a spy chief to decide against the i. G. And not turn over a whistle blower report because the whistle blower protection act seems to be pretty clear. Pitts never been done. As far as im concerned no. The dni has no legitimate authority not to turn it over. Theyre relying on this jurisdictional hitch. This unprecedented, you know, bit of nuance in order to say we dont believe were required to transmit it. They added language in their letter to congressman schiff saying we havent stopped the ig from transmitting it. As far as im concerned the whistle blower can now go through his counsel and coordinate with the Inspector General to make sure its transmitted to the Intelligence Committee. Do you think its going to get to the Intelligence Committee . In the end i believe it will get to the committee in some form. What is unsure is how long its going to take. Thats up to ultimately the dni if he continues to get in the way. Okay. Fascinating. Complicated and important. Brad, sam, thank you guys very much. Absolutely. Coming up, a cnn exclusive. Iran threatens allout war if the u. S. Strikes following the saudi oil a pak. Nick paton walsh spoke with the iranian minister and he had a lot to say. Well go there next. In a lot of hot water, after photos of him show up. What is he saying . Thats ahead. Ohhh. Ahhgh. So imagine how we cheered when we found tide pods sport. Finally something more powerful than the funk. Bye. I love you too he didnt say that. Tide sport removes even weekold sweat odor. If its got to be clean, its got to be tide. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. 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While iran denies it, pompeo once again says iran is responsible. For more on the interview let me bring in nick paton walsh. He had a lot more to tell you. Yeah, he did. One key thing from the interview was we asked whether the people who says were behind this, the Houthi Rebels of yemen, he had actually seen proof they were behind it. He said no, he heard the statements they put out evidence which weakens the vigor in which iran holds that particular idea. Thats been their explanation that the houthis and yemen have been Saudi Arabian air strikes and this was revenge for that. The issue of sanctions and negotiation with the United States saying simply there will be no talks at all until the United States or unless the United States rejoins the nuclear deal and takes off the sanctions that trump reimposed when he pulled out of that nuclear deal. We also talked about the possibility of a military response. Heres what he said. Imt the things that the United States has accused iran of so far, frankly called an act of war, said you fired missiles from a sovereign territory and the sovereign territory of another state. Thats a lie. I understand. These would normally result in some kind of military retaliation. Do you believe donald trump is gun shy . No. I believe that he has been the subject of an attempt many times to drag the United States into a war and he has refused. And in spite of the fact that i disagree with many of his policies, i think this is a prudent decision. But it doesnt mean that somebody is gun shy in order to avoid starting a war based on a lie. This is sort of his appeal here. I think what hes been trying to say in this interview, donald trump essentially appealing directly to him, dont start a war with us, you wont like it if you do. But at the same time, i dont think donald trump that thats actually what you want to do. Thats what youre advisers are pushing you towards. The trouble, though, doesnt seem to be room for negotiation. He was hoping to get the United NationsGeneral Assembly in new york in the days ahead. He said in the interview he was waiting for visas and time was getting short. Hes still waiting. Mike pompeo hinted quite strongly theyre not coming. Kate . Fascinating. So important how he, the nuance in what he was saying and that appeal. It sure seemed like to President Trump in that interview. Great stuff, nick. Thank you so much. Coming up for us, world leader with his political career on the line. Canadian Prime MinisterJustin Trudeau after photos of him wearing racist makeup. His apology and what this means for his reelection bid. Thats next. I found some incredible records about samuel silberman. Passenger manifests, census information, even wwi draft registration cards. The records exist. Theyre there, theyre facts. That made it so real for me, it wasnt just a story anymore. Bring your Family History to life like never before. 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