The steele dossier for a warrant to spy on carter paige. The president held that memo up as proof the fbi was biassed against him in their russia probe. But democrats cried foul saying it was an incomplete picture of what really happened. They have been fighting for weeks to get their own memo released. That included negotiations with the fbi over what needed to be redacted out of National Security concerns. I want to get right now to cnn justice correspondent evan perez. We know the fbi was uncomfortable with the release of both of these memos. Walk us through them. The focus is really the controversy over that dossier put together by the former british spy paid by the Hillary Clinton campaign. According to the democratic memo released today, they say that the steele dossier played a small role in the surveillance done on carter paige, who if you remember was a former National Security adviser to the Trump Campaign. They say the court was told that the steele dossier funders, the people who paid for the steele dossier were motivated to discredit the Trump Campaign. The application doesnt make any reference. It appears it doesnt make any explicit declaration that this was paid for by the clinton campaign. But it does say they were there to discredit the Trump Campaign. We also learned according to this memo today, ryan, that the carter paige surveillance began in october of 2016 and goes through september of 2017. So almost a year of surveillance of carter paige during the time during the time of the transition and after the inauguration looking at all his contacts with russia. Finally we also learned from this memo today that the Justice Department told the secret Surveillance Court that there was additional info, information, that the fbi had obtained that, quote, had multiple independent sources that corroborated the information in the steele memos. This is the first time we have heard that from anybody in the government. We have reported that previously here at cnn tharks the fbi did do additional work. They had independent information to corroborate some of the information from Christopher Steele. But now this memo makes that clear, ryan. All right. Well, evan, we knew the president initially was opposed to the release of this memo. Then they went back and forth. The Justice Department worked to have some redactions put in there. The president is responding to the release of the memo tonight. He tweeted russians had no compromising information on donald trump. He is citing fox news s as his source. This whole witch hunt is an illegal disgrace and obama did nothing about russia. If you could fact check a little bit about that for us, that accusation that president obama did nothing about russia, is that true . Well, look, i think there is a fair criticism of what the Obama Administration did when they learned about the russian meddling, when they knew of the russian involvement in the hacking of the dnc servers and so on. What i think the president is getting mixed up here is the idea that the Obama Administration didnt do anything. I think there was a lot going on behind the scenes. The criticism i think is fair, that perhaps they didnt do enough. But it is not true they didnt do anything. After all, the Obama Administration called out the russians. They president obama himself confronted Vladimir Putin about it and said he needed to cut it out before the election. If you remember after the election the Obama Administration kicked out some russian diplomats, people they said were spies and added some sanctions after the election to punish russia for what happened in the election. So its not true that the Obama Administration didnt do anything. I think it is fair. And i think a lot of people have said this, including democrats, that they thought the Obama Administration didnt act early enough and didnt act strongly enough at the time that it was seeing what was happening. All right. Evan perez, thank you for breaking that down for us. And joining me now, cnn National Security analyst juliet, cnn legal analyst michael moore, scott generjennings and michael mcmullen. Scott, the president said that the memo vindicated him from the russia probe. Today he said the memo was, quote, a bust, and that the entire russia investigation is a quote illegal disgrace. Interpret that for me. How is the special counsel probe an illegal disgrace . Look. There is valid reason to be investigating russian meddling in the election. Thats the president s position. Hes been very upset about the Russian Investigation from the getgo because he thinks it calls into question the legitimacy of his victory. I dont care thats true. I think the russians tried to meddle in the election and they did in different ways but we have yet to see actual evidence of collusion between the Trump Campaign and the russians. So thats going to be the president s position. The democrats of course have a different position. They traded memos. I think most of the American People are going to wake up in the morning and say i dont read the memos that people send me at work. I am not going to read these. The only thing that matters here is what Robert Mueller comes up with as his investigation rolls on. Isnt that part of the problem for the president , that hes not allowing the investigation to go forward. If hes done nothing wrong, why accuse the acting counsel of acting illegally . Hes trying to position his pr response to this for his people. I mean, thats clearly what he wants people to believe. Thats what hes going to say. The president has done nothing to stiop this investigation. On cnn the night this was initially delayed and every democrat was sure the president was going to block this. Here it is coming out tonight. He said he was inclined to release it. The fbi worked on it with congressman schiff. Here we have it. I dont think the president is doing anything to block the investigation. He could be mad about it, but there is no blockage here. Adam, do you agree with scotts assessment here that the president going on twitter, accusing the special counsel of acting illegally does nothing to interrupt the investigation . No, i dont. Look, i agree with scott, though, that the president is feeding a pr message to his base. Thats for sure. Thats why you see his commentary being so divorced from the reality. It really doesnt matter. Thats been his strategy all along. Thats the strategy of his surrogates, of his allies, to feed a message to the base that this investigation is illegal, unwarranted, a witch hunt, whatever. Thats why you have his base still believing that. And, so, he will continue to do that. But again i do think that the president is trying to obstruct the investigation, at least in the sense in making it politically very difficult for the president to be held accountable under certain political circumstances. Namely, if his base continues to believe hes done nothing wrong and i think it is very clear that he has done something wrong because he openly played a role. He played an open role in russias attack on our democracy, which is what happens in other countries when russia attacks their democracies. They pick a candidate. That candidate spews the russian talking point and divides the populus of that country. It is part of it. Thats what trump did. But his base will go on believing that hes done nothing wrong and if mueller brings some kind of findings while the house is under republican control, if the base is still with trump, they may not do anything to hold trump accountable. Obviously the politics are a big part of this. But there is a big substance that came out of this as well. June ya this one piece that the fbi interviewed carter paige and the Trump Campaign listed painl as one of the candidates Foreign Policy advisers in the washington post, republicans even tonight, congressman peter king was on with me a couple of hours ago, he was trying to make the argument that carter paige played no role. Does this memo refute that to a certain extent . It does. I mean, you know, the memo i just want to say how much i hate this conversation because of what devin nunes did. I think republicans and democrats should agree that these Counter Intelligence investigations should not be as public as he did. I think it was important that adam schiff got the other not the other side, actually got the complete story out. But nonetheless, devin nunes, while sort of undermining himself in this process is also sort of undermining the basic tool of our Counter Intelligence efforts, which is the fisa wiretap and in particular this one against carter paige. What is so damning is the fisa application was started not based on the dossier. We now know and thats proved in the memo today was confirmed by other activities by carter paige and was reaffirmed by four republican judges on the fisa court. So the idea that this is some, you know, clinton motivated thing is just ridiculous at this stage. They were looking at not just what started the fisa application because it is sunseted, but they are continually sort of upping it because they are getting enough information through this surveillance. So much so that the line is they had credibly suspected that carter paige was an agent of a foreign power. Right. And this is the president s Foreign Policy adviser. So these are the facts. A tweet is not going to undermine the facts at this stage. And, michael, from your perspecti perspective, if you are seeking the courts approval for a warrant, and this has been a talking point for the republicans today, do you think disclosing Christopher Steele was working for a political opponent of the candidate is enough . The democrats seem to think thats sufficient, but the president and republicans are arguing that specifically the warrant application should have said he was working for the dnc or Hillary Clinton. Is that enough legally to grant this application . I think it is especially when you have other information. What they seem to be saying is they hope the judge is somehow a Hillary Clinton hater and that they want to throw her name into the mix somehow in the application and that will be enough for him to sway his decision one way or another. Thats not irrelevant. I mean, that is irrelevant. We want our judges and our Justice System to be nonpartisan. We want them to be impartial. So the very fact that they put the information in the application and in fact this was a political opponent, i think thats sufficient. You know, i think we keep missing the point, too, we keep forgetting that the dossier was not initially paid for by the democrats. This was paid for and initiated during the republican primary. That seems to get lost somewhere from chairman nunes. He forgets that. And thats a real problem. It is ironic to me, too, when you think about it from a law and order perspective. The democratic memo came out in support of the activity of the fbi and said there was no wrongdoing or anything improper. They followed policy and did everything they needed to do. There is no reason to cast doubt on the fbi. What a change. The Republican Party has for years claimed to be the party of law and order and here it is now the republican i mean the democratic remembers like schiff and others coming forward saying we are backing up and supporting what the fbi did. To that point, i would like you to respond to that because devin nunes today happened to be speaking at cpac when this memo was released. He said the democratic memo shows collusion with the fbi and the Justice Department to cover up this application process. Is that appropriate for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to make an accusation like that against not only his fellow democrats on the committee but this important arm of the american Law Enforcement . I dont know whether its appropriate or not. I mean, i guess he has every right no speak, just like schiff has ever right to speak. I see congressman schiff calling donald trump everything but a good milk cow. These guys have gotten into a real war on this committee. Regarding republican support for Law Enforcement, i think republicans broadly support the Law Enforcement community. I support the fbi. One thing thats been said and i agreed with this, trey gowdy of South Carolina said the republicans arent upset with everybody in the fbi. There is four or five people they want to take a look at and analyze their activities and make sure they were fair and impartial in carrying out their duties. Thats it. Republicans arent trying to impugn the integrity of the fbi. I think they want to make sure certain small numbers of individuals arent doing something that would impair their judgment. I think when the president says to tell the fbi to get back to work, i dont think that builds the kind of confidence in the men and women that serve in Law Enforcement every day. I had a pleasure to serve with many of them and it knocks their moral down and there is a red herring the president is throwing out. When they have to listen to that from the commander in chief, i dont think they feel support. You were a rank and file cia officer at the same time. If the commander in chief was coming out and attacking the organization the way this president has, how would that make you feel when you were out there doing the work of this department . Yeah. You know, i have to say when i hear people say that, look, the president and devin nunes are attacking the leadership of Law Enforcement organizations, not the rank and file, therefore it is okay. No, it is not okay. Of course they are attacking the leadership because they are acting in a partisan way. They are not acting in the best interest of the country. They are trying to attack the legitimacy of those organizations. All the power resides in the hands ultimately of those organizations leader. So it is sort of this silly rhetorical game they play. When you attack a senior official of an Intelligence Organization or a Law Enforcement organization or any other agency and accuse them of wrongdoing, it is an attack on that agency. Thats what it is. And the purpose of this is to erode americans confidence in their Law Enforcement organizations so that whatever findings they ultimately come out with they dont carry weight with the American People and therefore again, as i said earlier, make it more difficult for the president to be held accountable in congress. If you were at the kremlin today as this conversation was taking place here in the united states, i mean, what could putin and his allies be thinking about the way that the congress has handled this investigation . Is this part of what their goal was when they decided to intervene in the 2016 election . Well, yes, it was, to create this kind of unstableness. But what i think they are probably prefer more than congress is the fact that President Trump to this day just hes been president over a year, has not done a number of things. He has not condemned russia and their involvement in 2016. He has not condemned or warned them about 2018. He has undermined the very federal agencies that are in a position to stop the russians from doing it. Mainly, the fbi, the cia and even the state department. And President Trump has made this issue, as we saw last week with the indictments and then the sweets today, has made this issue about him. I mean, look. His tweet today is about they didnt find anything unthwart about what i did. We know what hes talking about. How do you go from a fisa warrant and information that shows that one of your Foreign Policy aids may have been an agent of a foreign power and you have a couple dozen indictments now with the mueller campaign. I think they are thrilled by donald trump. I think they could not imagine that a year into his presidency as the intelligence agencies testified this week or last week about he has never told his government to stop the russians, use every tool possible, name and shame them, do the sanctions, everything that we can do. He has not picked up a finger, lets just put it that way, to stop the russians. Please stay with me. There is a lot more to discuss with our breaking news tonight, including President Trump wasting no time responding to the comments of this memo. Now adam schiff has just responded. This is taking place, where else, their favorite medium twitter. Well share that with you when we come back. Youre live in the cnn newsroom. When you say you need a heart transplant. Thats a whole different ballgame. I was in shock. I am very proud of the development of drugs that can prevent the rejection and prevent the recurrence of the original disease. I never felt i was going to die. We know so much about transplantation. 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