President trump declassifies that explosive memo written by republicans on the House Intelligence Committee. The memo released to the public over the objections of the president s own fbi director and justice officials. Im jim sciutto. And im pamela brown, the partisan memo from the committee chaired by former Trump Transition Team member devin nunes alleges serious abuses by the fbi of the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act. Democrats say its misleading that omits key facts and accuse republicans of using this memo to try to undermine special counsel Robert Muellers russia investigation. The big question tonight will the president use the memo to fire Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein always hanging over there. It is. The white house came out and said thats not under consideration but certainly raises the question, could that trigger, if Rod Rosenstein could that trigger the worst constitutional crisis since president nixons saturday night massacre. A lot of parallel drawn to that tonight. I want to bring in the justice correspondent. Evan perez. And justice reporter cara, where to start. Evan lets go to you. Now we have this memo theres been so much build up to it. Three 1 2 pages. Critics say its misleading whats the central allegation that stood out. I think the central allegation here from republicans who prepared this is that there were four fisa warpts, four surveillance authorized on carter page. And according to the memo the fbi and the Justice Department failed to disclose that this dossier prepared by christopher steele, a former mi 6 agent, he failed to disclose that this dossier was funded initially by democratic donors, by Hillary Clintons campaign. They say because of that it undermines essentially a breakdown of legal process, undermines the entire process, and undermines the investigation that we now are living with. I think for a document obviously thats based on omissions, right, theyre saying the fbi and Justice Department failed to disclose this stuff to the judge that approved these warrants, there is a lot thats missing here. There is a lot of stuff that we know that the fbi had, additional intelligence on carter page, we know that the fbi had additional intelligence in order to get niethese warran. There is a lot missing from the document its sever. On the central claim that in effect the warrant on carter page who at the time was no longer with the Trump Campaign but had been with the Trump Campaign, that it was principally based on what was in this dossier, weve spoken to democrats who were in the room and say thats not the case. Thats not what Andrew Mccabe said. But lets filter out what the democrats said lets listen to republicans. Earlier tonight Lindsey Graham released a statement and he said the following. Mr. Steeles piece was a piece of a larger pizle. I expect the democratic memo will provide further context. Shimen thats consistent with our report there was other intelligence that went into that. The memo hints that. Weve done this reporting for months now if not almost aier. And this i think is central issue for the fbi, omissions, misleading, the characterization by the republicans that this is based on the dossier, that the fbi went ahead and got that warrant based offer the dossier we know from our reporting talking to sources thats not true. There were intelligence officials that were sharing information. Contacts of people in the trump orbit who were in contact with russians that raised a lot of a alarms. Other human intelligence, the fbi was doing its own surveillance. Carter page was on there radar for years. All of that went into this fisa application. And so this is the central issue i think for the fbi. And George Papadopoulos is mentioned on the last page of the memo as being mentioned in the fisa application. It says on the memo process. The papadopoulos triggered opening of a counterintelligence investigation in late july 2016. The russia investigation began before the carter page warrant and based on as you say another i dont want to say suspect but another person involved in the probe. To you, cara, you have to look at how the process works because thats important here. Every time you go back to get a renewal every 90 tais you have to show its elicited Important Information to support the probable cause that this person is acting as an agent of a foreign power. In this case there would have been four judges, four independent judges sign off on this. Right. And not only four independent judges sign off on this but the process, the internal process that it goes through at the department of justice it went through that under trump nominate the and appointed officials. It wasnt a partisan thing that it was just under the last administration. But people that trump put in place were approving the memos and approving their applications to go to the court. And to get a new to get an extension of a warrant, which is essentially happened. They replayed for the initial warrant and three times came back and said to the judge id like to keep it going for 90 days is that right right. Ee and and shimon you, you come back to and you have to show you are gaining valuable intelligence. Right, you do have to show that in the past 90 days we were able to collect additional intelligence that warrants the continued surveillance of in person. Look, this is the most invasive type of surveillance you can do on a person. Its something very serious. The judges take it very seriously. Were talking about carter page. If you go back, the fbi had him on their radar back in 2013 and 2014 as part of an investigation in new york of a russian spy ring. And the fbi talked to him then and told him that the russians were trying to cultivate him. And so all of this is what was contained in the 50 or so pages of in of this warrant application. And so i think one of the things that i think is missing from this is that additional context. And also the renewal is a big part of this because as cara was saying there were two people that trump there were two trump appointees who were part of the renewal process. Thats Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, and dana bente, acting attorney general then the Deputy Attorney general and was running the National Security division. These are two people who participated in the approval process during the renewal. Dana bente was the person that helped enforce the travel ban after valuey yates refused to do so. Were in the weeds on this because we cover it day to day. But lets be honest. This is political. This is a political strategy. We are told the president was telling people that this would undermine the russia probe. Does it provide the political cover that theyre looking for. I think the republicans think that look they dont care necessarily that it may be gives reason for the probe to end. I think what they want is to bloody it up and make sure that their base knows that when the president is called to testify appear he says no i dont want to do that they can survive that politically. I think that may be it has helped in that cause. Umhum. Earlier tonight the author of in memo, devin nunes, the house intelligence chairman, he was on fox news. He was asked about the prospects of more memos coming out listen to the answer. This completes just the fisa abuse portion of our investigation. We are we are in the middle what i call phase two of the investigation which involves other departments, specifically the state department and some of the involvement that they had in this. That investigation is ongoing. And we continue to work towards finding answers and asking the right questions to try to get to the bottom of what exactly the state department was up to in terms of in russia investigation. Cara, is there evidence the state department was somehow wrongly involved in this . I mean, if there is i think its the first we have heard of it. I havent we havent all the focus has been on the fbi and the Intelligence Community. That we havent really seen what the state department was up to. I mean this is also it seems more politicized because nunes is really trying to focus on the oversight, focus on potential flaws or red herrings that they it throw up to flash up at the investigation. Its not the first time because we go back to the unmasking scandal which unfolded in a similar way going to the white house oh my gosh this happened and petered out. Its funny i asked this question last night, you know, what if just the fbi and doj were doing their jobs and discovered an american who might be talking to russians and explore and found more evidence went back to the judge, isnt that a plausible explanation for what they were up to here . Its pretty extraordinary if you think about it, the fact that the fbi, the hand pick fbi directors come out basically said look this causes grave concerns to release this. The white house in conjunction with House Republicans basically ignored that and release this memo today anyway about one of the most sensitive. Right. Things in american i keep one quick point on that on what you are saying there, pam,able i think you have to remember look there are concerns with privacy. If there is such a thing, and thats what this is about, they havent backed it up. And so the question for members of congress is if you think they broke the law then what law did they break . Who are you charging with that . Are you going to change the fisa law . After all they just reauthorized a section of the fisa law. As far as we no he they made no changes that would have cured this. So it really goes to the point that this is more of a political issue, not something that they really are serious about privacy and protection of americans. Its a great point. Because its certainly a reasonable debate to ask about how far can you go in surveilling americans even in a National Security investigation. But if youre making a charge that its happening illegally you better present evidence. Thats why this is never supposed to be so public, right. The fbi, this is their concern. They value the work they do on fisa and the courts, fisa courts and they treat it with extreme sensitivity about, because the working going into this is so sensitive and so important in terms the way they view it for National Security, that we cant they cannot afford to expose anything that goes on in that court. There are people under surveillance in this country all the time. Sometimes you go to a regular court or criminal judge and ask for this. But when it comes to the fisa stuff it takes a lot to go there especially on a u. S. Citizen where you really need a lot of. Who has not been charged. In this case carter page its not clear he is ever going to be charged. When we started this story remember we get o kept getting the distinction this is a counterintelligence investigation. These are the kinds of things that the fbi does in counterintelligence. There are no charges on carter panl in fairness to him we have to emphasize that. Four people have been charged in the probe not carter page. Thank you guys so much. Coming up the battle raging in washington tonight over the nunes memo and what it could mean for the russia investigation process. Weal get reaction from a Top Republican and a top democrat. Stay with us. Well be right back. A basketball costs 14. Whats team spirit worth . cheers whats it worth to talk to your mom . Whats the value of a walk in the woods . The value of capital is to create, not just wealth, but things that matter. Morgan stanley now, full coverage for a super flawless look. New Super Stay Foundation from maybelline new york. Full coverage formula. Up to 24 hour wear. Flawless that lasts. Maybellines Super Stay Foundation. Only from maybelline new york. Why create something this extravagant . Or make a back seat that feels nothing like a back seat . Why give it every feature you could want, along with a few you didnt know you needed . Its simple. You can build a car, or you can build a cadillac. Come in now for this exceptional offer on the cadillac ct6. Get this lowmileage lease on this 2018 cadillac ct6 from around 549 per month. Visit your local cadillac dealer. I thought i was managing my moderatearound 549 per month. To severe Crohns Disease. Then i realized something was missing. Me. My symptoms were keeping me from being there. So, i talked to my doctor and learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of Crohns Disease after trying other medications. And the majority of people on humira saw significant symptom relief and many achieved remission in as little as 4 weeks. Humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, liver, and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. Before treatment, get tested for tb. Tell your doctor if youve been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if youve had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flulike symptoms or sores. Dont start humira if you have an infection. Be there for you, and them. Ask your gastroenterologist about humira. With humira, remission is possible. Oh theres one. A the sea cow manatees in novelty ts . Surprising. Whats come at me bro . Its something you say to a friend. Whats not surprising . How much money matt saved by switching to geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. Richard oh ernie was that too hard for yo . Richard no. Is this too hard for you . Ernie woo were playing catch now richard ugh ernie sorry, sorry, sorry and breaking news tonight, fallout from the release of the explosive nunes memo which alleges that fbi and Justice Department officials abused their surveillance authority. President trump approved the memos release. Democrats called it an attempt by republicans and the white house to discredit the ongoing russia investigation. So lets talk more about this with congressman steve king and Iowa Republican he joins us on the phone right now. Congressman king thanks for taking the time tonight. This is jim sciutto. A central accusation in the nunes memo is that this warrant that was issued on carter page was based principallies on the dossier. In fact though we hear from Lindsey Graham, of course your republican colleague in the senate, he says the following in the statement. Mr. Steeles work, product was one piece of a larger puzzle as it relates to mr. Page and others. I expect the democratic memo in response will likely provide further context. Which is it . Is was the dossier the central reason this warrant was issued . Or as republican senator Lindsey Graham says it was one piece of a larger puzzle . Well, im reluctant to take Andrew Mccabes word for this. But in or excuse me, in the memo, in the nunes memo it notes in there that Deputy Director mccabe testified before the committee in december of 2017 that no surveillance warrant would have been sought from the fisa Court Without the steele dossier information. So. To be clear. Thats the lynch pin. Thats his word on that. And i dont know that lindsey has read the democratic report at this time or the memo. To be clear ive spoke ton democrats, three democrats in the room for Andrew Mccabes testimony. And they say that that nuns comment mischaracterizes what mccabe and they like senator graham, three members of the House Intelligence Committee in the room for his testimony. They say in fact he said it was one piece of a larger picture. Well a piece of a larger picture but the largest piece of a picture, that by the way that testimony there, a transcript of the testimony that will over time i think we will get to that. And there is so much of this thats gone on here i want the full public to see i mean we found out that the nuns memo doesnt jeopardize any National Security or sources or methods. Its a good thing its out there. Lets put sunlight on this. If the democrats have a case. What i understand is their 18page memo has a lot of sources and methods and a lot of classified that need to be redacted before the public could see it. Its not as carefully drafted as the one of the nunes memo. But we should see all of that that can be released from a nonclassified stand pinpoint and members of Congress Need to have access to the supporting documents and have a chance to read them through. And i from what ive seen, i have been sickened at what ive seen. Congressman king, you make the case its important foreign the public to be aware of this, there to be transparency. It sounds like youre open to the democrats memo to come public once its scrubbed. What is your response to democrats saying that the information in this memo is cherry picked . Well, you know, that down to a short list of what they can complaint about. I mean and i actually heard the general say last night that the memo is incomplete. Well, you can allege that about anything. Memo, you could allege that about the war and peace that it left something. Certainly they condensed it to a zblumt to be fair, congressman, they say because its cherry picked its misleading not just democrats frankly thats what the fbi director said as well. The fbi director read the report on sunday and mccabe was gone on monday morning. I think he saw something in that report that he could not defend. He said there were key omissions congressman king. And i can look at it and see the omissions. It doesnt chinclude the other information in the fisa application that went