Sitting president of the United States. Another mark up hearing tomorrow morning which is expected. The imminent impeachment on the house floor of President Trump. I want to bring in our correspondent, i believe we have garret headache aake on the hil his first appearance here on the hill. We have seen you a lot garret. We have some folks looking at that hearing, you have been looking at impeachment. Speaker pelosi has telegraphed a narrow case that could be pushed through judiciary, our colleague Geoff Bennett did not see the democrats splintering or holding other amendments here. They want to get this through you kn unified. What does your reporting show about that . Thats right. We have been starting to put the pieces together on a senate trial which is mostly fan
fiction of what you have been hearing about it that both sides speculated of what it looks like. We heard from Mitch Mcconnell yesterday afternoon saying theyll wait until the new year getting it started. It will push all businesses aside including the Senate Taking up usca for the white house. What i am hearing from republican lawmakers including senators and some House Members close to the president that the president is probably not going to get what he wants which is a big show on the senate floor with witnesses call. The president wants adam schiff and hunter biden and the whistleblower. There is not much an appetite for that. To come over to present the case. Then you would have votes and you would have a vote to dismiss
a vote up or down on the charges or vote to go foreign witnesses. Republicans may want to see president s witnesses to be called to be possible to have Defense Witnesses essentially in this case and not the prosecuti prosecution. Mike pompeo and Rudy Giuliani himself perhaps could be called republican senators do not want to see that fight. If there is one thing that animates you are Hearing Members including Lindsey Graham and mark meadows, advisor to the president , lets wrap it up as soon as possible. Republicans assuming that the president is exonerated at this point, they make the argument lets do it fast. I suppose that could change the holida holidays. Any republican senators or staffs are concerned of donald trump of the statement they made, defenses case are harder . It is possible. The reality here is the idea there would be 20 republican senators who would defect anything the president says now is unlikely, right . You have to think if you stood by the president this long and if you decided after this much coverage public testimony of the facts in the ukraine case setting aside of the elements of the Mueller Report which is not included here. Whats going to make you change your mind now . Is there another tweet, 6,000 others didnt . I am not talking about the
vote counting. The case, you mention if they dont want to get ugly, it would seem that the president not publicly admitted that his corrupt goal of targeting arrivals rather than saying Foreign Policy of security. It may have been a better position. I want to tell viewers we are keeping an eye on Chairman Graham whos explaining some notes about his coming hearing and bringing Senator Cornyn in it. I want to join my colleagues and thanking you in your professional staff for the outstanding work that you have done. This got to be one of the hardest jobs in government to be impartial watchdog and pull Government Agencies and justice accountable. I want you to know how much we appreciate your work and your teams work. Leadership of the fbi of the last administration and the way
they mishandled this Counter Intelligence investigation, i think the ranking filing agents in the fbi and their colleagues committee to know we are there for them and support them in the faithful thinks charge of responsibiliti responsibilities. I would like to think there is no more supporter of our Law Enforcement agencies or Intelligence Committee. I believe general hayden when he wrote his book about the cia, it is called plain to the edge, it is not over the line but up to the edge in the interest of our National Security. That makes it important for us to rule out illegality and
exercise authorities are given to our intelligence community. Let me ask you a little bit about that. Because i cant think of anything more damaging to the intelligen Intelligence Committee, the doj of what you have uncovered in this 400 page report than what we have seen here. It really is troubling. Can i ask you, the Surveillance Court as you have pointed out considers the application of a foreign Intelligence Surveillance for a warrant by the fbi working with the National Security division of the Department Of Justice, do you believe that the court knew what you know now that it would ever issued the Warpt Rant In T first place . We are careful of not predicted of what the judges do. I know they would not sign a warrant if they were told not all relevant information included. Or if they were lied to. Do you know if the court would consider this matter . If they have the report or a followon letter from the department about this matter. I hope theyll not let this pass because this behave, this illegality and this deception becomes a routine. I agree with senator graham that it will be the end of authorities that Congress Granted which is very damaging to our National Security. The Surveillance Act includes
the word surveillance obviously and you cant surveil an american citizen for Intelligence Services except under special eyes and exact circumstances, would you agree with that . Thats correct. The rights given to the constitution are laid out in the bill of rights among other places and there is a more higher standard with giving a warrant, lets say to wiretap or investigation in american citizen then it would be foreign agents. The whole exception here which authorizes surveillance of mr. Page was based on some proof or some indication or suspicion, he was an agent of a foreign power, correct . They have probable cause that he was an agent of a foreign power. They got incomplete and
misleading information in that process. The court got inaccurate and incomplete information. Whats the difference between surveillance and spying . Well, surveillance and the term that i am going to use in the report is whats in the law. You dont like the vernacu r vernacular . I am going to stick as what we do as igs and stick to the law. To my mind there is no difference, although it is legally authorized. It is an act of Covert Intelligence gathering to hear a foreign power. Let me ask you about the defensive briefing. You explain in response to senator grahams questions, i
believe some point during the last few year, i remember the Attorney General said, defensive briefings were routine and Counter Intelligence investigation, would you agree with that . I frankly dont have enough experience on the National Security site to tell you one way or another. I heard that being said but i dont know specifically. You dont have any reasons to disagree. No reason to disagree. If they are routine, Attorney General lynch is correct, the decision by the head of the division of the fbi not to provide an extensive defensive briefing to Candidate Trump and his campaign would be unusual. If it is usual then it is not doing it. It would be unusual. What was more unusual is the fact when the director of National Intelligence went to
provide what turned out to be a briefing to the Trump Campaign lasting about 13 minutes, i think you indicated in your report. That they had implanted into that group, an agent, an fbi agent that was part of the Investigative Team for across Fire Hurricane. The agent, there was one fbi agent there and they chose the agent from the intelligence investigation. Instead of their mission to provide Candidate Trump and campaign to arm them with information so that they can prevent the russians from infiltrating their campaign, this briefing such as it was had a duo purpose. The agent it says on page 342 of your report prepared himself going through mock briefings, headed by stroke and lisa page and the general counsel unit
chief, correct . Thats correct. This was not just an accidental sort of thing. There were plans made for the ajept to go in as part of this defensive briefing and perhaps get general flynn to offer information that may be helpful to the fbi in their investigation. It was duo purposes, one was to see if anything was said in response to the briefing that would be useful for cross Fire Hurricane but also agents told us for future interviews of mr. Flynn. So mr. Flynn was clearly the target. He was the three people there from the Trump Campaign from the only one of the three about whom who was a subject of the fbi investigation. He was not told that he was
under investigation or the ajget was there hoping to bait him or providing krcriminology he certainly was not told it is a duo purpose investigation. You pointed out this will never happen again, is that what you said . Thats correct. Are you familiar with the fact that director comey had a meeting with President Trump january 2017 to talk to him about the steele dossier. I am and we referenced that of the report of him handling the memos. Why do we believe director
comey socalled defensive briefing of the president , was there anything more than in an attempt to abate the president and be useful to the fbi and Counter Intelligence and some future investigation. As mentioned earlier, one of the concerns doing that here is that it leaves open the possibility that people may ask it may happen elsewhere. It strikes me, it fought with danger just like it was for general flynn for the director to go in the white house, the oval office and the white house not to tell the president that anything he says could be used against him in an Ongoing Investigation including criminal charges. I agree with the chairman. If this is going to happen to a president ial candidate or the president of the United States,
what kind of protection the average american citizens have that their government wont erase this vast power against them and essentially ruin their lives. To me thats a profound concern as a result of your investigation. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Picking up on that. I have been joining senator lee for year talking about this court. We have ample record here. Internal fbi revealed dozens of in accuracies provided by the court. The list goes on and on. Lets haves the future of the fizor court and the reputation. Mr. Hardwick thank you for being here. The chairman gave an
uncharacteristic opening and went on for 40 minutes and produced lent thigthy emails. When i read your summary, you didnt find either of them to be in charge, did you . On this investigation, we did not. When it comes to expletives, on page 339 in the report found some agents of the fbi who had opposite viewpoints and positive towards Candidate Trump and open on their expertists to demonstrate that. We are in a different field office. We dont believe anyone in
the capacity with lifechanging decision like every single day should be so politically bias to call into question of their values and character. Thats correct and i made this point last year when this issue came up. Individual of the usjustice department. They cant go tie their personal use to theirnvestigative. Thats one of the things you sheared with Director Wray. Correct. The chairman made a point talking about the fact that the Trump Campaign was not notified of this Ongoing Investigation until a much later day after been initiated. And i would just say be careful what you wish for. There are those of us who looked at the james comey, october 28th, public declaration of the Hillary Clinton investigation as
being deadly in terms of the outcome of this election. There is a notion of the fbi publicizing investigations and making it known to many people can cut both ways. It is good to know them, i am sure. You run the risk as more people come to know it, it becomes a public knowledge, is that an issue . We wrote a report about that, concerns of what the director did in that regard and you want to control the information and make sure the only people need to know it. Did the chairmans opening suggested a bias in this instance with the fbi and others against donald trump that he believes those manifest in many things have followed. I can argue from our side of the table, we can finds bias including comey staples before the election, really had many in our Points Of View determines the outcome. Let me go back to rudy
giuliani. Here is something during the 2016 campaign, Rudy Giuliani was Trumps Campaign surrogate. Bragged about having access to information of the investigation. He teesased in september that a surprise is coming. Rudy giuliani says and i quote. I expected this, did i hear about it . You are darn right i heard about it. How could we be dealing with those kinds of statements that long ago and still not have some evolution. If i remember right, one of comeys rational, is Public Announcement was, i could not do it through the new york office. Has there been no investigation of this . As i mention last year when we released our report on the clinton email investigation, we were looking at that question
and the challenge as i mentioned back then and i will mention it again proving who spoke to whom and when based on the record of the fbi and understanding there is rarely going to be submiss e information well get. We are trying to followup and continue to do that. We issued two reports so far about findings we have of leaks and misconduct. We have extradition ongoing. Are there any concerns that mr. Rudy giuliani is continuing to obtain information and sources of Law Enforcement. I am not going to speak to what we have learned or what we
know about our Ongoing Investigation and i am not investigating matters related to the ongoing ukraine issues that i can do referencing. Let me ask if i ccan ask question about problems within this case as it relates to the treatment of individuals who are engaged and i am thinking particularly of ongoing questions about whether or not in your conclusion that he was not a russian agent. Did not have important context that were not in the best interest of the United States with the russian leadership . I am not in position to assess that. What i can say access is looking
at the evidence that the fbi put forward to the court, significant number of pieces of that evidence do not support their theory. Theyre the experts and not me. Could we speak to the steele dossier. I believe you had a standard statement about what impact that steele file had on the initiation of this investigation. What was your conclusion . In toeerms of initiation, it had no impact. It was not known to the team that opened the investigation the time they opened it. You concluded several different ways of no evidence of political influence but the opening of this hurricane investigation, is that correct . Correct. On the reform issue, let me
get there later. One thing thats interesting here and he introduced the bill which would give the inspector again Generals Office to investigate in the department. Right nous thatw it is not corr under the law. It was not. Back in 1988 when the ig created the justice, the compromise was attorneys would be carved out. So as the fbi and da at the time. After the audrey james spy scandal, attorney ash changed out and gave us the Authority Of Da and Congress Codyfied it in
2002. We are the only ig cant view conduct of all the employees including attorneys. He has the authority to do that. This statue in change took that away. Mr. Chairman, i hope you are considering that. Thank you for your service. Thank you, i will go to senator sass. 30 second s here. Has anybody been charged with working with the russians illegally working with the russians that were part of the Trump Campaign that you were apart of. Not that i know of. Thank you very much mr. Chairman. I find the conclusion that some have raised, your report, m
missister, exonerate the fbi in this matter. To the point that it makes me wonder whether those were making this argument read the same report that we are talking about today. Perhaps, you are talking about a different report . There is no plan