Fire bob mueller. Top democrats warn that would spark a constitutional crisis. Doing putins job. Ailing senator john mccain says muellers investigation must proceed unhindered saying if we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing putins job for him. And market drop. The dow jones dropped 666 points. The steepest decline in years. Analysts say the political turmoil doesnt help. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. Breaking news, a partisan republican memo alleging fbi surveillance abuses, now setting off a political firestorm and warnings of a constitutional crisis. President trump authorized the release over the objections of his hand picked fbi director and his own Justice Department. The memo by the House Intelligence Committees gop chairman claims that a warrant for surveillance of a Trump Campaign aide with russia ties relied on Research Funded by democrats. The president calls it a disgrace but democrats call it a political stunt aimed at undermining Robert Muellers russia probe. After the president ominously suggested he has no confidence in muellers boss, Rod Rosenstein, Democratic Congressional leaders warning the president of a constitutional crisis if he moves to fire either man. The House Speaker on the House Intelligence Committee, congressman adam schiff, and our correspondents is that specialists are standing by with their if you will coverage. Lets begin with jim acosta. He has the very latest. President trump continued his fault on the fbi dapg day by authorizing a partisan republican memo accuses federal investigators of politicizing the russia investigation. As all of washington expected, the president greenlighted the release of the memo portrays mr. Trump as the real victim of the russia investigation. The president poured it on from the oval office. I think it is terrible. I think it is a disgrace whats going on in this country. I think it is a disgrace. The memo was sent to congress. It was declassified. Congress will do whatever theyre going to do. But i think it is a disgrace, whats happening if our country. When you look at that, and you see that and so many other things, whats going on, a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves and. Worse than that. The memo drafted by devin nunes accuses federal investigators what republicans characterize as a politically written dossier. Into carter pages interactions with the russians. I think people are conflating a lot of details and jumping to conclusions. The white house authorized release of the memo saying there was significant Public Interest in the document. The memo says the steele dossier was a part of the case alleging steele was desperate mr. Trump not be elected. For the memos release, Christopher Wray said it doesnt tell the whole story and expressing grave concerns about materials of fact. The president lashed out at his own gopled gop team. The to have leadership and investigators of the fbi and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of democrats and against republicans. It raises questions over whether the president would fire Rod Rosenstein, a move that would pave the way against robert mueller. The president was abrupt. You figure that one out. Rod and rach relevant harvard graduates, are laushs, rachel has had a number of years previously so they both represent the kind of quality and leadership that we want in the department. Senator john mccain namd statement, the latest attacks in the fbi and the department of justice serve no american interests no, parties, no president s, only putins. Former fbi director jim comey said thats it . Describing it as dishonest and misleading. This ignores the convenient fact it did not begin with or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier. The investigation would have begun and continued even if Christopher Steele never came along. Democrats have their own memo disfutures republicans findings. But republicans on the House Intelligence Committee voted monday to block its release. The president wouldnt answer whether he would release that memo though the white house issued a statement saying, the Administration Stands toward Work Congress to accommodate oversight requests. The white house has avoided it all week. When youre attack fbi agents because youre under criminal investigation, youre losing. And in the last several minutes a white house official has told cnn, as for the fate of Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney general, that there is no consideration of or conversation about firing rosenstein. You have to ask the question, has anybody told the president . Good question. Thanks very much. Jim acosta at the white house. Lets bring in our legal experts. Were just learning that there was a message recently or just delivered by the fbi director Christopher Wray to the team. Our colleague reports that he said he knows theyre going through a tough time especially in the unsettling last few days, he said he was inspired by the fbi and the work that the employees do. He also said, quote, the American People read the newspapers and watch tv but your work is all that matters. Actions speak louder handle the words. Chris wray is in this tough spot. He was appointed by this president. It has been repeatedly repudiated by the president and the House Intelligence Committee and theyre making him to be some time of partisan and he is trying on walk fine line. Protecting his people and the institution and protecting this investigation which is still ongoing. The allegations in this three and a half, almost fourpage document, the allegations in the memo comport with what we know that the surveillance of this former Campaign Aide carter page . The most important thing is the three and a half pages. And theres a lot not in here. We know about carter page was on the radar of the fbi, going back to 2013, 2014. They believed they were trying to cultivate him as a possible spy. You look at that information, three, four years ago, and in 2016, during the time of the campaign. He goes to moscow. So theres a lot not in here that went into the work and we know in addition to the dossier, the document hints at that, but it doesnt say it fully. We know that there is additional intelligence the fbi had for this application. Yes. Previously, Trump Campaign officials, Trump White House officials, they constantly sought to play down who carter page is. They were suggesting he is a nobody. He had a little minor volunteer role. Now he has emerged at the center of this new effort by Trump Supporters to discredit the investigation. How things change. Weve been reporting that he was part of the russia probe and all this time, the president and all those around him said he wasnt part of the campaign. The president himself wouldnt be able to pick him out of a room. He had no idea who carter page was, although he did mention him to the washington editorial board. Now it fathers white house and republicans are using this fisa warrant on carter page. As an example the fbi was targeting the Trump Campaign which doesnt really square if before this, he wasnt part of campaign. And this, according to the memo. The fisa warrant, the application was submitted just before the election. And james comey as we know, never spoke about this. Not until well of a the election. And it was renewed three more times. Every 90 days you have to go to the judge and say this surveillance is helping show thus information to prove that this person we believe is an agent of a foreign power. Jeffrey toobin, step back a little bit. Youve now read this memo more than once. It is a disgrace, an embarrassment to the United States congress, it is part of an effort to discredit the president of the United States. Thats its only purpose and it doesnt even work on those terms because it is so shoddy in what it claims to be. The whole idea of this memo is that somehow this democratic operative, Christopher Steele, is the person behind the investigation. Its not true. First he was not a democratic operative. He was paid initially by republicans. In addition, he has supplied relative information in do you meaner terrorism investigations to the fbi in the past. So it is perfectly appropriate for the fbi to consider evidence that he provided. Most importantly, it doesnt include the other evidence that led the judge to grant the surveillance of carter page. Theres other evidence that is completely nonexistent. It doesnt pass the test for what it claims to be and it is really chilling to think that the president of the United States is attacking the most important Law Enforcement arm of the federal government based on this. It is pretty much a dud. Sean hannity on fox news has been flagging this idea that this document would be bigger than watergate. He said this is more watergate than a parking ticket. The opposite is true. If you read this, frankly, both democrats and the republicans have been making this, hyping this as some huge document. And it really doesnt assistant up. One thing i want to clarify, fusion gps, the company that hired steele. By the time they hire Christopher Steele theyre being paid by the democrats. Just to clarify that. Right. As you pointed out, there was other information. It alludes to being part of the fisa application including George Papadopoulos who pleaded guilty. It says here he was the reason. Republicans would say, the fbi wouldnt have been able to get this fisa warrant without the dossier. And it does raise questions about why some of the other information about the dossier wasnt included in the initial fisa application, that it was really a political document. It is hard to make a judgment without more information. But republicans say look at the time line. You used the dossier to get fisa application. You briefed the president on this dossier. And then comey, his june testimony of last year says the dossier was completely salacious and unverified. I think jeffrey would ang lot more about this. You have to remember when they made the application to the secret court, they would have had to put the footnotes of what information theyre use go. And there was no dossier at the time they did this. It was a bunch of memo thats had been submitted by Christopher Steel. What you see in this document, it shows Christopher Steel has previously provided credible information to the fbi on other investigations, and that would have been a lot more important to the judge who approved this warrant. Everybody stand by. The top democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, the ranking member, adam schiff of california is joining us. Thanks very much for joining us. You bet. Good to be with you. So the speaker of the house has called for the release of the democratic memo. Is it going to happen . I wish it would. I wish he had spoken out when we asked him to but this was the game plan for the gop. They know he couldnt hold off on release of the meme but they wanted to it sit out there and see if they could solidify the narrative. Look, the memo starts out by saying that theyre going to tell the read better a systemic series of abuses at the fbi that call into question the whole fisa court process. What it ends up delivering is criticism of a single fisa application involving carter page and its renewals that cherry picks information, that doesnt tell the readter whole application. And as the d. O. J. And fbi have said, deeply misleading and factually inaccurate. You can cherry pick any fisa Court Application and do the same thing. If the committee was seriously interested in oversight, they would have done what we usually do. They would have said, lets bring in the fbi, lets hear what they have to say. If they think something should have been included, youre asking why they didnt include it. But here they refuse to allow the fbi to come testify. And that tells you what the real goal was. And that was to put out this memo and use it to try impeach the credibility of our own fbi. Youve outlined some of the disputes with the memo saying, as you said again, that cherry picks from andy mccabes testimony back in democrat, the former Deputy Director of the fbi. Can you give us more specifics about what the democrats, what your memo contains . We know from public sources that there is a lot that the fbi knew with carter page that had nothing to do with Christopher Steeles reporting. Carter paige had come to the attention of the fbi years before he joined the Trump Campaign. In connection with a Russian Intelligence Network operating in new york. In which carter page was vex a target. So those circumstances of carter pages already existing, the information that existed already about his cross section, the intersection, would be very pertinent in a case like this. But let me say this. Let me point to a couple things i can talk about. You see in this memo theres no evidence that page and papadopoulos were conspiring together. So the suggestion is it was inappropriate to include this information about papadopoulos or it doesnt strengthen the application. The fact is, papadopoulos was approached by the russians and told that the russians had stolen Hillary Clintons emails, dirt on hillary clinton. And this took place in april of the election year. So they were making an approach to one of the trump Foreign Policy advisers. What was page . Another of the trump Foreign Policy advisers and the russian were making an approach to him, too. And the part of the steele dossier and the impression that it was all in there, salacious video and all, it was not correct. The part they referred to is quite analogous to the situation with papadopoulos. So it is very relevant and very pertinent. If you read the memo, it is very misleading and thats the whole purpose of it. Why couldnt they wait until it was scrubbed to make sure there was no classified information, sources or methods, anything along those lines, and release the two memos simultaneously which has always again practical of the House Intelligence Committee, going back decades . Well, have been, they could have if that was the goal. You have to remember, the bhoim they ordered it released, had not been skrubld by the fbi or the department of justice. The fbi was saying, this is misleading and inaccurate. The Justice Department was saying it would be extraordinarily reckless but they voted it out. So could they have voted it out at the same time since it was equally ready . Yes. That wasnt the goal. The goal was simply to get a misleading piece of information before the public, help support the president , help discredit the Mueller Investigation and the fbi, help do the bidding of the white house. And thats all thats going on here. Of course, the damage theyre doing will be very long last go. Why should the fbi and the Intelligence Committee trust our community or congress with sensitive or classified information if they think were on a party line information, going to vote to cherry pick and disclose parts of it. It is a completely reckless abuse of the classification process. And one other thing ill say, this house rule that they used has never been used before. And it contemplates, it gives the president five days to review and veto this. It contemplates having a chief executive, a president of the United States, who is a responsible actor. Who doesnt have a stake in this. But of course, thats not at all what we have with donald trump who has a very deep personal stake in it. When you read the transmittal letter saying this is the product of consultation with the department of justice, that, too, is misleading. If writ accurate it would say were doing it notwithstanding the consultation and the department of justice. Did the then Deputy DirectorAndrew Mccabe tell your committee he there would not be a fisa warrant without the dossier . Well, the language thats used in the memo was not his language. I cant give both precisely what he said, i cant do it from memory but more than that he talked about, i can say in very general terms, that a fisa spliks viewed in its totality. Each part of an application is important to the application. And so well have to wait, i guess, until his testimony is fully disclosed. We do make reference to it in our response of memorabilndu me. They are cherrypicking to it. If the goal here, and you suggested it is the goal, to discredit the entire russia probe, robert mueller, to discredit the fbi, the Justice Department, the top leadership, we saw the president s tweet on that this morning. Some have suggested that gets pretty close to obstr