Abuse of surveillance during the Trump Campaign. Wray warning, and i quote, we have grave concerns about material missions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo accuracy. This coming hours after the president said he will 100 release the controversial gop memo. Release the memo . 100 . Can you imagine . Zbll and the president chief of staff john kelly earlier today said the memos release is a fada complete. Ill let the experts decide that when its released but this president , again, so unique, brian, that he wants everything out, so the American People can make up their own minds. President trump lets keep in mind is three days to make up his mind formally to stop the partisan memo release or handpicked director, as you heard, chief of staff, make it clear, seems hes likely to do, to be clear, the gop memo we are talking about is three and a half pages, highly partisan summary written by one of President Trumps topollies, in congress. After all, a rival democratic memo reaches a different conclusion. Nunes 3 and a half pages is based on extensive background material that few people have scene, including devon nunes himself, the guy who puts his name on the summary, never saw the material upon which it is based. As for fbi it has been fighting the release of the gop memo and of all that classified information the memo cherry picks from in its attempt to discredit the mueller investigation. And when it comes to that background material, crucial background material, both democrats and republicans have taken the fbis side. The president can declassify it. My counsel to him is dont do it. Do nothing to jeopardize sources and methods. So if they were to declassify the source documents you would be fine with it . I dont think id be fine. Leave that up to the cia. Now more breaking news this hour, cnn is learning that Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein in charge of mule tear russia investigation, met with the president and begged him to stop. House intel devon nunes from demanding all that back material material that turned into this memo. In that meeting that trump asked Rod Rosenstein if he was, quote, 0en my team. That meeting between trump and Deputy Attorney general is crucial. Evan perez is breaking that story tonight. To the background material, this crucial background material upon which it is based, what are you learning about the context of this question when the president said are you on my team . Well, the context of this, erin is the Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein went to the white house in december seeking the president s help to block the document demands from the house intelligence chairman, devon nunes. Sources familiar with the meeting had the president had other things on his mind upcoming testimony on house committee. The president asked Rod Rosenstein where he thought the investigation between the links between russians and his campaign was headed, and he went on to ask whether Rod Rosenstein was quote on my team. Now, the exchange could raise questions as to whether President Trump was looking to interfere with that mueller investigation, which is looking of course into potentially legal coordination by the Trump Campaign, and obstruction of justice by this white house, erin. So, evan, obviously we know the former fbi director comey testified to congress that the president asked him for a loyalty pledge, is how he talked about it. Right. Did Rod Rosenstein think this was a similar question . I mean, are you on my team . Right. Its not clear. But we are told that Rod Rosenstein definitely appeared surprised by the president s questions. He didnt provide any details on the direction of the russia investigation. And he responded sort of awkwardly to the president s team request. He said, quote, of course we are all on your team, mr. President. Now during the house hearing shortly after the white house meeting that we are talking about, Rod Rosenstein was asked by lawmakers about loyalty pledges. Listen to what he had to say. Is it ever appropriate for the president of the United States to demand department of justice official or fbi director take a loyalty pledge . I dont have any opinion about that, congressman, no one has asked me to take a loyalty pledge other than the oath of office. And we know from also at that hearing, Rod Rosenstein was asked about whether or not there was any indication of when he had this loyalty pledge, whether that conflicted with his oath of office. He said he did not see that. By the way, we reached out to the white house and the Justice Department, both of them had declined to comment so far. So obviously this is all important, evan, and your reporting is also showing that the president did seem very focused on that december hearing that Rod Rosenstein where he was asked about whether he had been asked for a loyalty pledge. Why was the president so focused on the hearing . Right. Thats right. The president brought up the upcoming hearing during the white house meeting. Trump went so far as to suggest questions to members of congress could ask him. One line of inquiry trump was asking lawmakers to ask whether Rod Rosenstein appointed mueller as special counsel to investigate this russian meddling in the 2016 election because mueller was not chosen as fbi director. Remember he interviewed for the job. Doesnt appear by the way erin that the questions president were not asked. Important not asking that, but requesting is significant. Thank you so much. And evan reporting, the very reason Rod Rosenstein was at the white house was to get the president to help him to fight off demands from devon nunes from that classified information that nunes team ended up using to write the memo. It is that memo that is causing potential war between the white house and fbi which has become highly public. Jim sciutto outfront in washington. This is stunning public nature of this white house and the fbi right now on opposite sides. No question. And lets take for a moment out the republican and democrat views of this. Clearly, will is divide on that. But this is about agency, the bureau versus the white house on this, and mind you an agency run by Christopher Wray chosen by the president to replace james comey. The fbi saying this document not it shouldnt be released because its classified, it says its flat out inaccurate. Right. And its not alone in that. The department of justice which oversees the federal bureau of investigation, also run by a trump appointee, Jeff Sessions mind you, sent a letter to nunes saying it sees no evidence of abuse of the fisa warrant powers. In addition to that, i spoke to current and former u. S. Intelligence officials who believe that releasing this memo does pose a risk to classified information because it reveals how these surveillance decisions are made. So three people telling the president not to release this memo. Okay. Obviously crucial. Thanks very much. And now with the breaking news, go to chris coons. Senator, i appreciate your time. Your committee oversees the department of justice which means you oversee Rod Rosenstein. Do you have a problem if he was asked by President Trump whether if hes quote on his team . Absolutely. This is just another example of President Trump failing to understand and failing to respect long standing norms. The department of justice is not on any president s team. The department of justice is charged with defending the constitution and enforcing the law. So their role in our society is ensuring that no one is above the law. And that means staying away from very complicated and politically fraught conversations like this where the president inappropriately, immorally, and in fact perhaps illegally, pressed Rod Rosenstein whether he is on his team or not. This is exactly the sort of thing that special Counsel Robert Mueller would be looking for in an investigation into potential obstruction of justice. Former fbi commey said he asked him for loyalty. But is this okay . The reason i ask you that senator, when then attorney general holder asked if he was planning on leaving the obama administration, and i quote, im still enjoying what im doing. Still work to be done. Im still the president s wing man so im there with my boy. Wing man, there with my boy. I mean, isnt that a loyalty pledge . You raise a good point, erin, those are expressions by the former attorney general that suggests a closeness, partnership. But we are in a very different context here now. Rod rosenstein is supervising special Counsel Robert Mueller who is leading an investigation into the 2016 election and whether or not there was collusion with the russians and there has been obstruction of justice since. In that context, given the previous conversation with fired fbi director jim comey where the president famously asked him for his loyalty, a conversation today just last month with Rod Rosenstein in the white house by the president asking if hes on his team has perhaps a very different context and meaning than a voluntary public conversation by attorney general holder saying im enjoying working with the president , im his wing man. But you are saying its different because this president is being investigated, thats the line, the context you are talking about . At least, yes. Okay. We are reporting that Rod Rosenstein appeared surprised when the president asked if hes on his team but responded to the question by saying, quote, of course we are all on your team, mr. President. In his testimony to Congress Just after that meeting, Rod Rosenstein was asked directly about whether the president asked for his loyalty, right n the context of comey they asked this meeting had happened, Rod Rosenstein had replied of course we are all on your team. And heres how the exchange then played out in congress. Is it ever appropriate for the president of the United States to demand that department of justice official or fbi director take a loyalty pledge . I dont have any opinion about that, congressman, no one has asked me to take a loyalty pledge other than the oath of office. So either he didnt think that that was a loyalty pledge, or he misled the committee. I believe the former, that Rod Rosenstein chose to say, well, that wasnt a loyalty pledge. And it may be that he understood the question from congressman jeffries to be prior to being hired. Since, remember, one of the things thats been a problem here is suggestions that the president asked for example Andrew Mccabe when interviewing him to the fbi director for whom he had voted in 2016. So i would give Rod Rosenstein the benefit of the doubt in this case. Okay. So you are not worried about that. The fbi has said when it comes to this memo they dont want it out, gop, nunes memo, because it admits facts and inaccurate. Now ive spoken to a democrat and republican who have seen the memo and background material upon which it is based. They agree that that background material should not be released. Obviously do not agree on the nunes memo and whether its accurate. My question to you, senator, do you think its possible the fbi does not want this memo or source material out because there was a mistake made at the highest levels in the fbi in the fisa process and russia investigation . Thats certainly possible. Part of vigorous oversight by congress in committees is to assume its possible that Law Enforcement and the Intelligence Committee can make mistakes, do make mistakes, thats partly why we have a structure where the house and senate Intelligence Committees have access to very wide range of sensitive classified materials. But ill remind you what is so unprecedented here. Another norm being violated. In 40 years obscure Committee Rule that allows for a partisan report like this deaf nonnunvon be released over the congress, party vote, this hasnt happened in decades, and it suggests what they are more interested in is scoring a partisan objective of under mining the fbi and doj and Robert Mueller investigation rather than revealing some mistake by the fbi. Look, i understand and i know they clearherry picked the data makes Robert Mueller investigation look bad. How do we get to the bottom of it . They are not functioning and no one is allowed to see that. Who the heck is supposed to tell the American People something did happen at fbi . We have house and senate Intelligence Committees review and often criticize the actions of Law EnforcementIntelligence Committee. Its clearly not working. Erin, but they dont do it in a matter of a few days. Taking that material and making it it public to the whole country. And by refusing to release balancing material that was kraftded by the other side of the committee. This is unpress dernted. And ill remind you these two are connected. Because i think this is part of an orchestrated effort not just by nun knees but others to undermine the investigation of special Counsel Robert Mueller. Senator coons, thank you very much, i appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. And next the president has three days to stop the controversial nunes memo from being released to the public. So whats going on behind the scenes at the white house tonight . Plus breaking news ha bombshell about peter strzok, you know that was out to get trump. Wait until you hear what he is responsible for. Perhaps President Trump should be thank youiing him. And we saw what was in the blue box, robins egg blue from Melania Trump to michelle. [man] woah. Ugh, i dont have my wallet, so [girl 1] perfect you can send a digital payment. [man] uhh, i dont have one of those payment apps. 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