Called the jihadis next door . Good afternoon, everyone. And welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin with our politics lead. For a second morning in the row President Trump threw a wrench into the plans of his own administration officials. Secretary of state Rex Tillerson was asked yesterday about the decision by six gulf states in the most to cut ties with qatar over claims that qatar supports terrorism. Tillerson suggested that the United States would not pick a side. We certainly would encourage the parties to sit down together and address these differences. This morning, however, seemed to overrule secretary tillerson suggesting that the u. S. Was siding with the sawed its, tweeting, among other things, quote, during my recent trip to the middle east i stated that there can no longer be funding of radical ideology. Leaders pointed to qatar. Look. Qatar is home to a u. S. Military base from which the u. S. Air force coordinates strikes against isis, so when President Trump tweets his condemnation of that country, should the world now assume that the president s worth is new u. S. Policy . Cnns senior White House Correspondent jim acosta joins me now. Yesterday some white house aides were suggesting that tweets should not be taken as seriously as policy and here we have the president seeming to set a new view of a nation where we have thousands of u. S. Troops, certainly people in qatar are going to read these tweets as official policy, no . Reporter absolutely, jake, and White House Press secretary zane spicer did say today that these tweets are official statements from the president. We should also point out that the white house is gearing up to respond to the testimony of former fbi director james comey. Thats happening on thursday. A source close to the white house tells me talking points are being drafted, but the big question as it seems every day at the white house these days, jake, is what the president himself will say or tweet, and just in the last several minutes the president offered not a tweet but a statement of good luck to james comey. Reporter two days until the testimony of james comey Top White House officials insist President Trump will be focused on his agenda. It will be a very busy day as all of his days are. Reporter but the president s political loyalists outside the white house are preparing Rapid Response efforts to react to the comb news, including the drafting of talking points that will continue to insist that there remains no evidence that mr. Trump and his associates colluded with russia. Speculation had been swirling for weeks that former Campaign Officials cory loon dousk i aey david bossie could join the white house but that appears to be on hold as the president seeks out a legal team in washington. Some of the war room talk was theatrics aimed at misdirecting the media, something we enjoy doing, the source said. Last week the white house pushed back on the notion that a war room was even needed. I dont think so. I think the president is very pleased with his theme. Reporter part of the president s team has become a focus of west wing chatter, attorney general Jeff Sessions. The president has been frustrated with sessions ever since he recused himself in the russia case. White House Press Secretary sean spicer could not say whether the president had confidence in sessions. I have not had that suggestion with him. Reporter last time comey testified the president offered his own prebuttal on twitter tweeting James Clapper and others stated potus didnt collude with russia. This story is fake news and everyone knows it. As for the president s social media habits fellow republicans are tweeting that mr. Trumps tweets are damaging his agenda. If we fail on both, were in trouble so the president has to lead. The tweeting doesnt help, but congress is more broken than just his tweets reporter president is rejecting all of the criticism tweeting the fake Mainstream Media is working so hard to get me to the to use social media. They hate i can get the honest and unfiltered message out. The same people who are critiquing the use of it now critique it had during the election and it turned out pretty well for him then. Reporter as for his soninlaw Jared Kushner who is now of interest to investigators in the russia probe, the president joked just a few moments ago that kushner has, quote, become more famous than me. Oddly thats something that the president once said to james comey. Later tonight the president is the having dinner with a number of senators including marco rubio and tom cotton. We should point out both rubio and cotton sit on the same Senate Intelligence committee that will be questioning comey on thursday. I talked to a key gop operative who wondered if its a good idea for rubio and cotton to be with the president at this the dinner tonight. Jake . Jim acosta. The president has repeatedly to crack down on leaker and now a suspected leaker has been arrested. 25yearold Government ContractorReality Leigh Winner is accused of sending a nsa document about russian interference to a news intercept. Diane gag engineer with more on what information was leaked. Reporter senator mark warner, the top democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said today the russian hacking attempts on u. S. Elections systems were broader and targeted more states than previously thought, telling usa today the attempted breaches didnt stop on election day. Now in october of last year cnn reported that federal investigators believed russians were behind Cyber Attacks on a contractor for an an election system in florida, similar to attacks on voter databases in illinois and arizona, but the intercept posted a redacted vergts of the document that described Russian Hackers as spending spear phishing emails to local Election Officials in an attempt to gain login credentials. At least one attempt was successful. The hackers used a fake email account that included a trojanized document that if opened could install malware which would allow hackers to access electronic files of the user. The document says its unclear if the spear phishing attempt was successful. Its clear they were trying to get into though the files, and i dont think they were going there to try to just hang out. Reporter on capitol hill today, the Homeland Security security was grilled on what the u. S. Could do to prevent such a breach. Imagine the disruption if thousands of people showed up to vote and their names were no longer on the voter files. What would we do . I share your concern. I dont disagree with anything you shade relative to the sanctity of our voting process. There is nothing more fundamental to our democracy than voting. Reporter shoreses tell cnn the nsa document was allegedly leaked to the intercept by this 25yearold Government Contractor with top secret security clearance, Reality Leigh Winner, a former air force linguist for the nsa. Winner, who started her contracting job in february, is accused ever anonymously mailing the top secret document to an online media outlet. Yesterday the Administration Made good on its promise to find and prosecute leakers as the Justice Department announced charges against winner. Her mother describes her as an at least who loves animals and claims she didnt know her daughter to be particularly political or to admire famous leakers but tweets on an account that appear to belong to winner tell a different story. Following 50 other accounts, including Edward Snowden and anonymous among other alt government pages. She expresses her disdain for donald trump several times. On Election Night apparently bothered by the final result tweeting, well, people suck, and on february 11th winner responded to a tweet from the president about refugees saying the most dangerous entry to this country was the orange fash it we let in had the white house. Diane gallagher, cnn, washington. Theres no evidence that any of these hacks altered any of the actual votes that is the were cast. Coming up next, should a 25yearold with a social media history of attacking the president have top secret security clearance . Well talk to a Ranking Member of the house Intelligence Committee next. Sfx engine revving silence of these hacks altered any of can we at least analyze customer can we push the offer online . Legacy technology can handcuff any company. But yes is here. Youre saying the new app will go live monday . Yeah. With help from hpe, we can finally work the way we want to. With the right mix of hybrid it, everything computes. The sunll come out for people with Heart Failure, tomorrow is not a given. But entresto is a medicine that helps make more tomorrows possible. Tomorrow, tomorrow. I love ya, tomorrow in the largest Heart Failure study ever, entresto helped more people stay alive and out of the hospital than a leading Heart Failure medicine. Women who are pregnant must not take entresto. It can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. 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Trump according to comey was trying to influence his judgment about the russia investigation because comey does not believe its his place to do so much. Comey will be there as a fact witness and will leave the legal analysis for others. As far as any big dramatic revelations, the source also suggests, quote, the center of gravity is going to be whats already out there, that is the request that the president made according to comey that he lay off Michael Flynn when it came to the russia probe and also him asking comey for a pledge of loyalty. Joining me now to discuss all of this is congressman adam schiff, the ranking democrat on olt house Intelligence Committee. I want you to take a listen to President Trumps son eric who is speaking with abc news about the investigation into possible collusion between members of the trump team and the russian government. Its the greatest hoax of all time. I was there throughout the campaign. We have no dealings in russia. We have projects in russia. We have nothing to do with russia. Is there any evidence that you have seen that disproves what eric trump says when he calls it the greatest hoax of all time . Well, its certainly not a hoax at all, and i think the the Intelligence Community found on the basis of very solid evidence that the russians were responsible. They did hack us. It wasnt the chinese. It wasnt some 400pound fat guy, so i dont know whether hes calling all that have a hoax or just the fact theres been a proliferation of contacts now being revealed publicly between trump associates, Trump Campaign people and the russians. We need obviously in the investigation to get to the bottom of this, whether these were innocent, whether they were malevolent, behind them. I find it interesting when the trumps talk about the fact that they dont have investments in russia, they are hauls very careful not to say that the russians havent invested in the trump family, in trump properties, et cetera, in the United States, and obviously thats a concern. Do the russians have Financial Leverage over the president of the United States or his family . Thats just an allegation that we need to get to the bottom it. I do want to mention what you previewed about director comeys testimony, i think thats exactly right. I would be very surprised if he was going to come and opine as to whether what expressed to him amounted legally to obstruction of justice but i think hell shed a lot of insight on just what those conversations were and most significantly did he record them in writing and the kind of detail that weve will be led to believe he may have . Do you i spoke with your counterpart in the senate, mark western, on sunday on state of the union and he shade theres a lot of smoke but no smoking gun when it comes to the idea of collusion. Is there anything you can tell us in terms of the smoke or what you have called circumstantial evidence that will make people think, well, maybe there really is something here, because as of right now we dont know of any facts that anybody did anything against the law other than the violations weve seen committed by Michael Flynn when it comes to registering after the fact as a Foreign Agent and perhaps violating military rules in terms of not getting permission before he spoke in russia but those are not the kinds of things being investigated. You know, i think the reality is were still in the very early stage of the investigation. We certainly have things that merit investigation that call out for us to bring in witnesses to follow the evidently trail. Its way too early to be drawing any kind of conclusion. I think ultimately were likely to end up in one of three places, and i always look at the 9 11 commission investigation, and in particular what the congressional investigation looked at, and were all familiar with the 28 pages now that they have been published. That look the at the issue of were the saudis complicit. Was there collusion, to use that term, between the saudi government and those involved in that plot . Ultimately congress was not able to corroborate information that suggested collusion. Whether we will end up there or be able to prove in fact there was collusion or well be able to disprove and demonstrate that in fact these were just a bunch of awful looking coincidences we dont know at this point. Indeed, its impossible to say, but then, of course objection you have the whole course of conduct during the administration, and as many have pointed out, if the president was interfering or obstructing in any way the problems that he created during the Administration May turn out to be of the greatest seriousness. A bigger threat. To find out. I want to turn to the 25yearold security contractor reality winner who is accused of releasing classified information. She tweeted after President Trumps victory, are well, people suck. Election night and in february she wrote the most dangerous entry to the country was the orange fascist we let into the white house and liked the tweet by the Hacking Group anonymous. How does somebody like this have top secret security clearance . First of all, i dont know about this particular person, cant comment on them specifically. Had problems like this before. Certainly had problems like this before. I think our practices are changing in terms of scrutinizing social media when we do background checks. The question that may be implicated here, and, again, im just going on the basis of the public allegation, is once you have cleared someone, then what kind of review should the intelligence agencies do to check peoples social media posts . Stay up to speed with that. Obviously we want to attract good people. We dont want to make them feel like they are living in a police state where everything they post is going to be scrutinized and if they say the wrong thing they are going to lose their job so its not like we can draw are a bright line here but nonetheless if there are signals being sent out that should sound an alarm we need to be able to hear them, and im sure that in the wake of this were going to be examining, okay, theres the front end check of social media. Do we need an ongoing check or does that is just take place when someones clearance comes up for additional review . The intercepts, the h