Released. He calls it misleading. Today, cnn found out white house officials are now worried that fbi director ray could quit if the memo is released against his recommendations. What we dont know is whether that even matters to President Trump. Sources telling cnn today the president told his friends that he sees this memo drafted by republican congressman nunez and Republican Committee staff as a way to undermine and discredit the Russian Investigation giving himself cover and ignoring, as weve noted, the objections of two of the nations top Law Enforcement officials, not just fbi director christopher ray, but Deputy Attorney general rosenstein. A democratic senator suggested its pretext for more than just undermining the mueller Russian Investigation, but for firing mueller. This appears to be a setup to enable the president to fire mueller and grind it to a halt. President trump did not mention the memo in the 35minute long remarks in West Virginia this afternoon, but today, the fbi is sending a signal it supports the decision against releasing the memo saying, quote, the Fbi Agents Association appreciates fbi districter Standing Shoulder to shoulder with the men and women of the fbi as we Work Together to protect the country from criminal and National Security threats. Joining me now to discuss this now, katlyn, there were talks to redact parts, but thats off the table . Thats right, jake. Two questions. We knew for some time the president wanted this released, but the questions were, had he read the memo, and when are they going to release it regarding redactions . We got answers today because the president has read the memo and reviewed it, and then just awhile ago flies back on air force 1 from West Virginia, a Senior Administration official told reporters this about the release of the memo saying weve had over the last couple days to look at it, to make sure it does not give away too much in terms of classification. Right now, i think it will be that we tell congress, probably tomorrow, that the president is okay with it. Now, heres the key line, i doubt there will be any redactions. The official added, then it is in congresss hands right after that, but right now, the white house says they do not believe there will be redactions to the memo, jake. And what are you hearing about the fbi director, Christopher Wray, making it clear publicly, quite unusually, he does not want this released. Yes, the way that he made this public is pretty minor compared to what hes been saying in private. Repeatedly making clear that he thinks releasing the memo is a terrible idea, and we are told, myself, with jeff and others that people inside the white house are concerned hes so upset that he might consider calling it quits saying, im out of here. Now, i can tell you that i talked to a source who is familiar with the situation, who insists thats not his style, that he would not threaten to quit. Having said that, he is, clearly, not happy, and i will also say that its not surprising that the white house is saying redactions with not necessary. My understanding is that the redactions were not really for sources and methods to protect the intelligence, any intelligence that was talked about in these memos, but, twam, to try to calm the fbi. The fbis problem, though, was not and is not whats in the memo, jake, but its whats not in the memo. Right. They feel a lot of information was cherry picked to make a point. Thinking the memo is misleading. Exactly. Your reporting that President Trump is calling around telling friends that he thinks this memo is going to help him with the Russian Investigation. How . Yeah, thats right, jake. The president is so eager to get this memo out there, and, today, we are learning just why, and its because the president believes once this memo is public, its going to actually help discredit the Russian Investigation, and hes been calling his allies and friends in recent days telling them as much that he believes once this is out there, its going to expose the bias among the top ranks in the fbi, and its going to show that the Intelligence Community has unfairly targeted him. Thats the president s perspective on this, and hes felt that for some time because we knew that before the president even read this memo, he was going around after the state of the union tells congressmen he was 100 going to release it, and now we can see a little bit into the president s mind set of why he thought that, jake. You have breaking news for us . Thats right. Ive just were getting this from our colleague that a source familiar with the process of reviewing this memo says at the moment, accommodations have been made in response to concerns by the Intelligence Community about this. They are potentially making changes because of that. Now, obviously, thats different from redactions. Changing the memo and actually blanking out parts of it are very different things, well see what they mean by the changes, jake. All right. Thank you so much. My panel joins me now. Cnns reporting the president has told associates that releasing the memo would help discredit the Mueller Investigation. Let me start with you, phil, your take on all of this . Didnt paul ryan tell us this was not about mueller . This was about looking into how the fbi conducts investigations . Look, this is not about redactions. This is not about the memo. This is about the president of the United States saying that his nominee and now his fbi director, Christopher Wray is running an organization involved in a conspiracy to undermine the president of the United States. This is about the executive branch, in this case, the white house, talking to the congress, nunez, in opposition to the fbi and other elements, department of justice who are involved in the investigation. Its us versus them, and the president said, youre with me or youre with the fbi. Its not about the memo or redactions. Its about saying the fbi is undermining the president of the United States. I think it is that simple. Mike rogers, in addition to being the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, youre a former fbi agent. I want to read a tweet from one of your former colleagues who said that to the president state of the union night two nights ago, and in which he said, release the memo, and the president said, 100 . Tweeting, quote, having read the memo, the fbi is right to have grave concerns to shake the organization down to its cores showing americans how the agency was weaponized by the obama officials slash dnc hrc, meaning hillary clinton, to target political adversaries. What do you think . Well, i mean, the narrative theres 18 different narratives from the republicans right now. All of this concerns me. The dualing memos between the democrats and republicans concern me. Heres the piece on the memo. If the speaker comes out saying its not about the fbi and Mueller Investigation, that comment does not say that at all. It says the whole organization is corrupt. Thats why you see something unprecedented. The fbi the director says something director, thats unusual. Unprecedented. And the fbi agents, working men and women of the fbi, making cases, cuffing people, hauling them to jail, they said, hey, we appreciate the fbi director standing up for us. Again, and i just i plead with my republican colleagues, if you believe that they were conspireing to purr jury in an affidavit before the court, thats a serious case to go to the ig or full investigation of the committee. This piecemealing of release of a memo is not going to give the American People anything but, you know, its affirmation news. I either hate trump and dont believe anything in it, or i love trump, and i believe every single word in it. I think theres probably the truth is somewhere in the middle, and in the meantime, we have absolutely blown up real constructive oversight of the Intelligence Community, at least happening in the house of representatives. When you were chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, you worked closely with the democratic Ranking Member issuing bipartisan reports. Thats not whats happening here. Neil, your response to this. Yeah, i dont think this release is going to undermine mueller at the end of the day for two reasons. I mean, one is that this is a pretty ham handed attempt by nunez, a selfsuspicious under some investigation like a report from hannibal lector saying im a vegan. Not much credibility there. Youre not calling him a cannibal or a vegan. Of course, of course. But saying hes acting suspiciously. The law has a long process of dealing with this. Criminal defendants say, hey, someone is bias against me, out to get me and so on. Every day in federal court we deal with that. Hear it all the time. Yes, prove it in court under high standards. Look, if trump and the white house believe that there is some sort of big conspiracy in the fbi against him, prove it up in court like everyone else. I want to play for you, you referred to what House Speaker paul ryan said in defending release of the memo, which contradicts the tweet by justify duncan. Take a listen. What this is not is an indictment on our institutions of our justice system. This memo is not indictment of the fbi, of the department of justice. It does not impugn the Mueller Investigation or the Deputy Attorney general. But, phil, when you listen to republicans in the house, when you listen to the suggestions made by nunez, the author of the memo and comments made by donald trump jr. , you get the complete opposite message. I think one of the biggest losers in the entire process is a man i believe is honorable. I believe the speaker is honorable, but led down a path thats going to be incredibly destructive. Think of the issues at play here. Youre saying the intelligence that drove the investigation is bad, but the investigation is great . That mueller is building an investigation built on faulty intelligence, but you still trust mueller . How do you do that . The second thing is more significant, jake. This is a complete setup. The setup is simple. Its not about the investigation. Its postinvestigation. If director mueller and now special counsel mueller comes out with indictments, the setup is that the president gettins t say indictments dont mean anything based on intelligence that you see in this memo was intelligence collected by means that do not reflect american values. This is absolutely about the investigation, and absolutely about special counsel mueller, and i think the speaker should say that. Neil, do you think that if the white house releases this memo against the advice of Deputy Attorney general rosenstein or fbi director, do you think wray and rosenstein resign . Should seriously consider it. At least wray. The fbi said, you know, this is essential to the mission, that this is a selective disclosure with materially omitted stuff, absolutely, wray has no credibility if he stays with the release under those circumstances. What do you think . Not only is the release unprecedented, but the Fbi Agents AssociationStatement Today backing wray is unprecedented. Yeah. I think this new cycle of im going to quit every time something bad happens is ridiculous candidly. Stay. Theres going to be an issue next week, an issue a month from now and two months from now. Agents need consistentsy. Wray has their interests at heart, if theres problems, hell fix them. He has to stay. He says i disagreed with it, but i understand my role in the world, i wake up in the morning and be the best director i can be for the agents. Theres more to talk about, more going on in the Russian Investigation including the spotlight on the White House Communications director, shes been at the president s side almost every day for the past two years, but did she hint in any way that there would not be a release of some Key Information in this investigation . Somebody who was part of the trump team says so. Stay with us. Friends, colleagues, gathered here are the worlds finest insurance experts. Rodney mastermind of discounts like safe driver, paperless. The list goes on. 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A lot of ininquiry for the counsel. An attempt to possibly conceal the meeting and whether that adds up to obstruction of justice. Special counsel mueller is scrutinizing a meeting between President Trump and his aides on air force 1 last year as part of the probe into whether mr. Trump obstructed justice in the Russian Investigation. Former Trump Legal Team spokesman is expected to be asked about it when interviewed in the next two weeks. Cnn previously reported President Trump helped craft a misleading explanation for a meeting between donald trump jr. And russian lawyer offering dirt on hillary clinton. The statement claimed the meeting was about russias adoption policy, though emails fromdicted the explanation. The New York Times cite three people with knowledge of the interview saying hes planning to tell the special counsel that White House Communications director, hope hicks, said, quote, the emails will never get out, leaving corallo to believe hicks was considering b obstructing justice. To avoid the he said she said scenario. Reporter denying thing te accusation, saying she never said that and the idea she suggested it would be destroyed is false. Theres an open legal question about this. Focus of the Mueller Investigation is the misleading statement, about what went on in the trump tower meeting, its not a crime to release a misleading statement, to lie to the press, in effect, so what is it about the meetings or efforts to obstruct or conceal the meeting afterwards that mueller is interested in and may rise to the legal level of crime . We dont know the answer to the question, but appears hes looking into more here than whats on the surface, jake . Thank you, jim. My panel is back. Phil, starting with you. Its not a crime to lie to the New York Times or to the public, so what might mueller be looking at here if hes wondering about mark corallo saying hope hicks communication director said something about concealing information from the public and the New York Times, theres no crime there. I think theres a couple questions you might ask here. Number one, pattern of activity. Remember, we had donald trump jr. Making different statements about the nature of the meeting, and now hope hicks is making additional statements. Im not interested in whether someone made a mistake on one day, a bad hair day, but interested in the pattern of activity over time saying there was a conspiracy to obstruct. I think thats one broad issue youre looking at. The second issue youre looking at is simpler, that is, i assume now or before that the team has interviewed hope hicks. Theyre going to go in and say not only what did you mean we that statement, but did you participate in conversations over time . This is all about