Wrongdoing by president obama contradicting President Trumps allegations that susan rice broke the law. Plus, more info about the investigation into trump Team Connections to russia. Details about surveillance warrants against one of the president s Campaign Managers and why the fbi thought that adviser could be acting as a foreign agent. Plus, its the first rule of politics. Dont compare anybody to hitler. I guess nobody told sean spicer. We didnt use chemical weapons in world war ii. You know . You had a you know, someone whens despicable as hitler who didnt sink to the to using chemical weapons. Weve got the latest on the attempts to clean that up and whether that will be enough for President Trump. We want do get started with the breaking news on the Trump Administration charges of improper surveillance by the Obama Administration. Cnn is learning now about the claims of chairman devin nunes that members of the Obama Administration improperly requested the identities of americans appearing in intelligence reports. Now, just to refresh your memory, heres what Congressman Nunes has said previously. Theres some information in those documents that concern me and the reports that i read that i dont think belong there. It would make me uncomfortable. Some of it i think it bothered me enough i went over to the white house because i think the president needs to see these reports for himself. I was concerned about americans identities being either not masked properly for in fact unmasked in intelligence reports. So, Congressman Nunes also said that he would share what he saw with other committee members. Well, he has. And cnns senior Congressional Correspondent is learning more about that. Manu, what are you hearing . Don, tonight both democratic and republican lawmakers and
aides casting doubt on the claims made that Obama Administration officials improperly requested the names of u. S. Individuals who had been redacted in intelligence documents. Cnn sources say these lawmakers have seen the same intelligence documents that nunes reviewed and tell us that they see no evidence that the Obama Administration officials did anything out of the ordinary and certainly nothing illegal as the president alleged. A congressional source described the request as, quote, normal and appropriate, don. So, you and jim schuto talked to sources who have seen the documents. What are they telling you about their contents . Well congressional source tells me, quote, theres absolutely no smoking gun in these reports. As nunes suggested and in fact the person saying the white house to declassify the reports to make it clear theres nothing alarming in it and currently classified documents but a lot of questions have been raised,
don, around the role of susan rice that former Obama National security adviser and whether she acted legally in requesting the names of Trump Officials who are incidentally collected in these intelligence reports. Now, President Trump himself said last week she may have broken the law. But, don, multiple sources have reviewed the documents that nunes timely say they do not back the president s claims she may have broken the law. Theyre saying that theyre routine requests she may have made. Now, the president himself, don, has not yet revealed what intelligence he has been relying on to make that assertion, that rice broke the law and the white house not yet provided that either. Manu, even if the obama rope explain to us, what are the rules for actually making and granting these unmasking requests. Well, they were set by the intelligence community, Certain SeniorNational Security officials can make these requests. The intelligence agencies principally the national
security agency, decides whether to grant these unmasking requests but we are told that typically the requests of senior officials are rarely denied and now despite in the judgment of the people looking at the reports that these obama officials requests were within the law and appear to be common practice, some members of congress do have concerns about the justifications that were given to unmask these individuals and the standards for the intelligence agencies to grant these requests so expect the both and Senate Intelligence committees to look into this matter as part of their broader investigation into russia, don. Manu, as you know and reporting, nunes forced to temporarily recuse himself from the investigation and investigated by the House Ethics Committee because of his handling of the documents. Whats the status now of that investigation . It appears to be moving forward, don. Right now the house on a twoweek recess and Behind The Scenes an agreement on the list of witnesses but even though theres a they do know who to interview going forward, theres a clear divide. Sources are telling us that the republicans mostly want to interview people who have leaked classified information believing that that is where the real crime is and democrats are looking to hear testimony about any of those ties between russia and those Trump Associates and they do want to talk to those key Trump Associates, expect that committee to try to interview all of those folks that democrats want to talk to and republicans including susan rice who will have to defend what she did and requesting the identity of those American Citizens and shell have to do that not just before the house panel, don, but also the Senate Intelligence committee which wants to hear from her as part of their own russia probe. Manu, thank you very much. Want to bring in jeff zeleny. Hello to you, jeff. This is not good news for the white house, of course. Everyone up to the president made a big deal of susan rices role in unmasking the names of
americans whose names came up in incidental complexion. The president told the New York Times what she did is one of the big, big stories of our time. Reporter he did, don. Good evening. And the president also told the New York Times in that interview about susan rice she was guilty of some type of a crime and not for him to necessarily decide. This is something that the white house has been trying to not talk about this week, actually. They have the syria strikes, other things. The russia investigation is still hanging over this administration. Still hanging over the white house here. And manus reporting about the house intelligence committee, the republicans and democrats, looking at this. I mean, that is very significant here. Because the white house is repeatedly said, look, this is in the hands of the house and senate the committees here and
activities . There was an earlier case in which page came to the attention of the fbi. I believe it was 2013. And in which he was basically engaging with what he thought apparently was a russian diplomat who, in fact, was a russian intelligence officer. This is in new york. And there was an exchange of information where he provided, page provided to this russian operative documents related to the energy field that he was working on. And so, this is one of the items thats listed in the application that the fbi filed with the fisa court to get the warrant up on the communications. So in other words, theres a history of contact there that the fbi was able to cite and then, of course, you know, when you look at carter pages history, hes he spent several years in russia, working for Merrill Lynch and has
frequently returned, you know, and that is obviously something that doesnt necessarily mean anything because a lot of American Business men, Investment Bankers and so on, have dealings in russia but this also added to the suspicions on the part of the fbi which then they had to present to convince an fisa judge to allow them to monitor his communications. Adam is a National Security correspondent for the Washington Post. Thank you. Can you stay with us on the phone . Because i want to bring our own people in here and then you can check and may need to get you to put a final button on this. I want to bring jeff zeleny back and joining us is laura coates and nia malika henderson. The 90day warrant is renewed more than once. What does it tell you that the fbi would have to prove if they
were getting somewhere to get it renewed . Why would they do that . Well, it could mean one of two things. Either, one, they did not acquire enough information to go forward with actual criminal charges and they needed to have more time to do so. The other explanation is they have not gotten enough but received some. Enough to warrant additional causes for probable cause. Probable cause, of course, the courts are saying, is there some basis . Is there a reason to believe theres a National Security risk at our at the core of your request to investigate an American Citizen . And if theres continuing information that is coming in that encourages the fisa court, this is an appropriate invasion, and theyll continue to grant continuance and extensions. Its very important what we just talked about in that you have somebody on the radar at the fbi
their failed Foreign Policy. It will be interesting to see when its more fully disclosed including the dodgey dossier, a document that clearly is false evidence which could represent yet another potential crime. Now, im sure, you know, there are going to be many, many more questions of page and other Trump Associates. What do you take from his response there . Yeah. Its fairly nonsensical. I mean, its this sort of allegation about the deep state and clinton and obama as the bad guys who are somehow pursuing him illegally. I mean, the point of the matter here is that the fbi is looking in to Trump Associates, obviously we heard comey say that in his testimony before the Senate Intel Committee a couple of weeks ago but, you know, carter page is out there on any number of occasions talking about this and you had trump with the Washington Post some point name carter page as a Foreign Policy adviser. It is unclear as adam was saying how close he was to the campaign, how much he was in the inner circle in terms of Foreign Policy. But i think, again, this puts this investigation about russia front and center at a time i think when we had the Trump Administration for the first time from this administration really talk tough on russia and really basically try to get russia to do Something Different and called them out in terms of syria. But again, this constant sort of trickling out of information about this investigation not helpful to this administration. Jeff, i want you to take a listen to this. We heard you might be announcing your Foreign PolicyAdvisory Team soon. We are going to be doing that, in fact, very soon. Id say during the week well be announcing some names. It will always grow. Anything you can start off this morning with us . I hadnt thought in terms of doing it. If you want, i can give you some of the names. Id be delighted. I wouldnt mind. Walid phares who you probably know. Ph. D. Adviser to the House Of Representatives caucus and counterterrorism expert. Carter page, ph. D. So that was march 21 of 2016, jeff, of the Washington Post. Both adam with the Washington Post and niamalika, both mentioned that exchange. Has the white house explained how carter page ended up on the list . They havent extensively. Thats back when mr. Trump was emerging as the likely or potential republican nominee. Just a little over a year or so ago and quite frankly he didnt have much of a big apparatus of advisers around him. He was a very Lean Campaign but he was sitting down with the Editorial Board there of Washington Post, that was the publisher of the Washington Post asking him questions there and he did say that carter page was an adviser. Now he was never a central player in the rest of the
campaign. Certainly like a Paul Manofort and sean spicer from the podium at the white house said, oh, basically not involved in the campaign. Thats not true. But carter page does fit into more along the lines of those descriptions here. He was never a central player in terms of the campaign apparatus. But did have meetings and he was, you know, in the inner circle and the president there, you know, was saying that he was one of his advisers here so look. As this plays out, it is getting closer and closer to the inner circle here and this fisa warrant, you know, that the Washington Post is reporting tonight is something that trump team and campaign will have a hard time blaming that on susan rice or others. I mean, this is a court of law, a judge that decides this here. So still a lot of questions about the exact involvement of
carter page, how close he was to the inside of the Trump Campaign but it doesnt necessarily matter because he was an adviser to this president. We heard him say it right there. So if he was sort of number one or number ten, sort of irrelevant at this point, i think. Jeff, nia, laura, adam and manu, i appreciate it. We have more on the russia investigation heating up again tonight. Sean spicer made a few blunders at White House Press secretary but this one is big. How hes facing the fallout from the shocking hitler comparison. You dont let anything
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that this is something that the administration they have to have a better way of explaining what the contacts were all about. As we move forward and shift away from maybe the syria story and back toward this investigation in the coming weeks. David, quickly, again, the president and the white house throw up a smoke screen with the issue of unmasking and susan rice . Our reporting is she did nothing wrong and at least now from the reporting theres there was nothing illegal about it. No illegal activity here. Did that smoke screen work do you think . Tw