Transcripts For MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams 201

MSNBCW The 11th Hour With Brian Williams January 30, 2018

Are increasingly under attack, Andrew Mccabe is out at the fbi. The reporters breaking the news on this story standing by for us with details. And whats its going to be like when donald trump walks into that chamber tomorrow night as a man under investigation on so many fronts. The 11th hour begins now. Well, good evening once again from our nbc news headquarters here in new york. Day 375 of the Trump Administration. The extraordinary rift between the white house and federal Law Enforcement agencies over this russia investigation has grown much wider and to some observers much more dangerous. Earlier tonight the House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines to do what the Justice Department warned them against. They voted to release a classified memo that republicans say shows the fbi and the Justice Department improperly used their Surveillance Authority in the russia investigation. As our nbc news colleagues write, the vote will quote, make public a classified memo about some of the governments most sensitive secrets. The democrats on the panel describe the memo as an attack on the mueller investigation. And they say republican members are risking National Security to protect this president. This committee voted to put the president s personal interest, perhaps their own political interests above the National Interest in denying themselves even the ability to hear from the department and the fbi. But it does show how, in vie view, when you have a deeply flawed person in the oval office, that flaw can affect the whole of government. And today tragically it infected our committee. Mr. Schiff the ranking democrat on that committee. The president has up to five days to block its publication. But that seems unlikely. Jennifer jacobs of blimebering news who joins us in just a moment reports quote, the mr. President erupted into anger traveling to davos when steven boyd warned it would be extraordinarily reckless to release a classified memo. One of the key targets at the fbi, Deputy Director Andrew Mccabe stepped down. Mccabe was expected to retire soon, but as we learned from the New York Times and writer matt michael puzo, he told friends that he felt the new fbi director chris ray was pressuring him to leave. Then fbi director james comey who learned of his dismissal while he was in los angeles. Comeys flight back to washington that we all followed on Live Television on a gulf stream private jet used by the government became an issue for the president , who according to nbcs carol lee, called mccabe to ask why comey was being allowed to travel on a government plane after being fired. Trump also went onto ask mccabe to ask his wife how it felt to be a loser. Thats in reference to her loss of a state election in virginia. The campaign for Andrew Mccabes dismissal has intensified in recent months. Here is the white house reaction to the news that mccabe was indeed stepping down. The president wasnt a part of this Decision Making process, and we would refer you to the fbi where Christopher Ray serves a the director, which as i said last week and ill repeat again today, the president has full confidence in him and has put the decisions at the fbi in his hands. We turn now to our lead off panel on a monday night. Matt apuzo, no matter what you hear his name is matt apuzo, animist nbc contributor, and we welcome to our broadcast a former fbi special agent in charge for the Agency Seattle division where he served under fbi director james comey and reported to of all meme Andrew Mccabe. Matt, it falls upon you to explain this memo to our audience, what we know about what it includes, and what kind of fix might be in. Why all the hubbub surrounding this memo and why the rush to get it out . Well, this memo concerns surveillance a warrant for a surveillance sorry, an application for a surveillance warrant that was approved by a Surveillance Court to listen and eavesdrop on carter page, who at the time was a former Campaign Aide to donald trump. And the republicans have seized on this to say this was a political democratic driven, you know, overreach of surveillance power by the Obama Administration to go after political rivals. And this report is apparently going to make that case. And its going to make the case that some of this information in the application for a warrant came from the dossier, the trump dossier. This is the Opposition Research that was paid for first by antitrump republicans and then by hillary clinton. And so that is all tainted. Now, look, i would love to see this memo. Id like to see the whole fisa application, the whole warrant application. The fight is you cant tell the whole list of abuses. And we have republicans trying to make the case this is all tainted surveillance, but were not going to be able to see the whole thing. And the public is not going to be able to make that determination off of this report. That much is clear. A subquestion, that this is all predicated on the o. J. Trial, that this is an effort to cloud up the jury pool and were all in the jury pool. Is this memo going to have impact among the core or the general public . Are we going to have people walking the streets of new york, washington, l. A. , and texarkana saying, you know, i dont think they followed the right procedure on that fisa warrant . Right, theres no question that the harder this becomes to all understand, the better it ultimately is for republicans and for the white house. The more this is about, well, it was the steele dossier information used to predicate a fisa warrant or was it used to supplement a fisa warrant. The more thats the discussion were having, the less the discussion is about what was the Trump Campaign ties to russia, was it obstruction of justice . You know, the murk yr this is, the better it is for republicans. Obviously, if you really wanted to have a public discussion about the propriety of using information in a fisa warrant, you will release as much as possible. And as a journalist, im all for seeing as much as possible. Now, jennifer, the president on paper has five days to decide whether to hold it back or release it. I guess he also has the powers of redaction. Is there any reason to think that this thing isnt coming out in the public lair . Well, its possible. So they have several choices. They can decide to essentially block the release. They can decide to okay it and not object to the release. They can redact it further further, block it out more as you said or they could decide to stay silent. It would go back to the full house if they redact the release, and ive been told its very unlikely if the president of the United States blocks the release of the memo, that the full house would then vote to override that decision. So if they decide to block the release, then theoretically it might not appear, it might not be released. And jennifer, we saw schiff come out. And schiff said that in their meeting today they bleed, the democrats did and the minority, for the minority remarks about this to come out. Everything they wanted to say to counter the points in this edited memo, thats been rejected until this memo comes out. Would something lake that be leaked and find its way to the Public Domain anyway . Well, one would hope not. If it contains classified information, you would hope it would not be leaked. And this is part of the reason why the Intelligence Community was willing to share this information. They allowed members of congress to view classified documents, about a thousand pages and gather the information that was used to write these dueling memos. And the reason they showed it to them because they trusted them not to release it to the public or pull shenanigans that would compromise the sources or methodology in these documents. As a veteran of the bureau, whats it been like to watch . Comeys been fired. The president has been attacking a career Civil Servant over his twitter account for the world to see, and today we learned that mr. Mccabe is stepping down. What do you think the mechanism was . Do you think this was truly his decision as long as he got his retirement benefits, which he has worked hard to earn . And hes a great guy. Stellar probe, really lives up to his oath every single day. And i think ultimately he just got tired of being dragged through the mud. And i mean this is a guy whos a professional Law Enforcement and intelligence officer. This is why who has dedicated the last two decades of his life to public service. And through no fault of his own, hes been dragged through this partisan mud. And i think it just got to the point where its just not worth it anymore, and he had the opportunity to leave. Rather than accept a reg aligzilation to another role, and he took it, because thats who Andrew Mccabe is. I and i think it was an act of principle on his part. Whats it been like for you to watch the partisan stuff surrounding this . The notion that it may be a liberal cesspool of people wanting to bring down donald trump. Where the notion at the white house was you could wear any shirt you want as long as its white or blue . Its an alternate universe thats upside down. And every day you alternate between frustration and outrage. To see a Great Organization staffed by many, many outstanding americans, men and women both, who have to be dragged through this process simply for doing their jobs, for conducting investigations. Not just this one but around the country. Around the world. Around the world for that matter, and then have to be subject to these kinds of insults. Because this is more than just an attack on Andrew Mccabe or jim comey or even peat strauk. This is about attacking the people who make up the fbi because everyone of them represents the fbi. I want to ask your control room to get what comey said on twitter up on the screen. And while we do that, matt, talk to me about the pressure mccabe was feeling. The pressure hes been under. Special agent Andrew Mccabe stood tall over the last eight months when small people were all trying to teardown the institution we depend on. I wish andrew well and also wish continued strength for the fbi. America needs you. So the former director appealing right there to the rank and file. Matt, talk about the pressure on Andrew Mccabe. Anybody with a twitter account could see what the pressure was on Andrew Mccabe from the president s own tweets. Hes basically been taunting him for some time. Now, there is an Inspector General investigation going on in the Justice Department thats reviewing comeys handling of the clinton investigation, mccabe whether he should have recused himself because his wife was running for state senate as a democrat and took some money from clinton connected democrats. And look, all thats going to come out. And i think the feeling in the fbi today from people i talked to and my colleague adam goldman talked to was just a sense of whether you like Andrew Mccabe or you dont like Andrew Mccabe, the president whenever he starts mucking around in bureau affairs, it gets dicy. Now, the problem here is chris ray is a new fbi director. And a new fbi director would be expected to pick his own deputy and chief of staff and his own council. But it makes it difficult to do that when the president goes in and seems to call all the shots. Yeah, this is the kind of organic natural turnover that would have happened, but now its all cloaked in this. Jennifer, weve been talking about the pressure put on mccabe. Lets talk about the pressure writ large being applied on the department of justice . Right, so the president was traveling to davos when he was able to focus on the news that had just broken, about this letter from a top doj official to the white house saying it would be reckless to do so. The president s frustration had boiled over. Hed had a long week of frustration with the department of justice. Ive been told he has a bit of a preoccupation with the department of justice and its inner workings and has been very critical of what they do. At the beginning of the week he was critical of department of justice officials for failing to fiend these emails that, you know, could have shown some sort of bias. And he called in Jeff Sessions and ray into the white house on monday to talk to them about finding these text messages. Later in the week on tuesday sessions was back in the west wing. On wednesday kelly sat down again with Justice Department officials about various things. Things came out during these conversations in which both trump and chief of staff john kelly said, listen, youve got to live up to expectations. Youve got to really work here. You need to be great or youre going to go down in history as being some of the worst at your jobs in history. So really laid down the line of what they expect of them and how they want them to be handling their jobs. So it was a long week of frustrations. And then when this letter from the doj was sent saying dont release the memo,iest just told that the president and other white house officials were just thinking is this Justice Department trying to undercut us again . What is their motivation here . Are they trying to hide something . Are they trying to protect someone . Trump on air force one setoff a kind of chain of events where various people from the white house were calling their counter parts from the department of justice saying whats happening here, and dont overreach and keep in mind that you are really not a part of this decision to release this memo. Frank, i have 15 whole seconds for a last word. And that is for all the fbi agents tonight who are working a 4 to 12, serving a warrant or worse, do you have any memories of the rank and file Holding Together and keeping their heads down and doing their jobs . Absolutely none. There are total pros. It really is its a good thing theyre out dispersed around the 56 fields and offices around the world because thats where they should be. And well weather this. Weve weathered other crises before. This one is a little different and intense. But the country is in good hands. The fbi is a great institution. It has the interests, the best interests of this country at heart. And every one of them will live up to their oath and defend and protect. I keep saying wait until the country need them in a big way and this conversation will change dramatically. Thank you all very much. More on that partisan vote tonight from house intel when we continue, as we approach our first break. Well get reaction from California Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell of house intel. Plus the russian shadow hanging over the state of the Union Address, trumps first as president. Were just Getting Started on a monday night. Were back with more on this breaking news tonight involving both the House Intelligence Committees vote to release a controversial memo disparaging the fbi. With us to talk about what happened today california democrat, current member of house intel congressman Eric Swalwell. Congressman, you said earlier this afternoon on this network that this memo should never see the light of day. And i want to ask a question that sounds flat but not intended to be. Whats the worse that could happen . Good evening, brian. The worse that could happen is it would falsely poison the well of Public Opinion of the rule of law, of the independence that we are supposed to have at the fbi. You know, people ask me, you know, whats the big deal about this . In first world democracies you dont attack the police when theyre investigating you, and you dont use them to attack your enemies. And this is falsely attacking the fbi to protect the president. Its a line that we just cannot cross, and im still hopeful that we dont go there, but i think were as close as wave ever been. I know youre not able to speak to the contents of the memo. Its the point of the argument. But if youre able to even if it calls for speculation, whats at work here . Why is this being pushed out . Whats it toward . Ive read both memos, the republican one that will go to the public as early as tomorrow and the democratic one that theyve prevented the public from seeing. What this does is it really seriously discredits bob mueller and his investigation by putting out facts just not supported by the evidence. Its a brainwashing of the public, brian. And again what it risks is that it also has a collateral effect of the rest of the line, fbi agents who you referenced during the night, they have to go to courts tomorrow and put warrants and affidavits forward on Money Laundering cases, corruption cases. And if their credibility is undermined by this, thats going to affect their ability to do their job. Another question i asked in the first discussion, what it it turns out we really need the fbi . God forbid a thousand times if the president is briefed on a domestic terrorist plot in this country, and it works to his advantage, some reform hes trying to get, something laez trying to get through, does he need to stop and say, no, thi

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