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That the russia investigation was somehow illegitimate in inception has been a guiding principal of this justice department. >> director clapper, as the man who was there and who oversaw the launch of the russia investigation, what do you make of this? >> well, i'm very curious. presumably, i guess i'm one of those under investigation. >> and you just heard about this? >> yes. i just read a clip about 20 minutes ago. i found the timing interesting given the increasing heat around the impeachment inquiry. and so the timing is interesting. i'll just let it go at that. and the other thing i wonde...

Subpoena them. you can always take the fifth if someone subpoenas you. >> but -- so they could not testify? >> they could not. and now to just to go ahead that. >> could give immunity and force them to testify. so there are ways the government can try to compel someone to give testimony. and in a criminal investigation has more tools at its disposal than the inquiry, the status it was before. >> jeff toobin, thank you. director clapper as well. thank you very much. not what we originally planned to talk about, but certainly looks like you're in the middle of this. so i appreciate this being on...

The top u.s. diplomat to ukraine is on capitol hill this hour behind closed doors. he is the latest key witness to testify in the house impeachment inquiry. this, as top democrats raise new concerns about protecting the identity of the whistle-blower, whose complaint about president trump's ukraine call sparked the entire impeachment inquiry. with me now to discuss all these developments, james clapper. good morning, director clapper. >> good morning. >> bill taylor, widely respected career diplomat behind closed doors. remember, it was he who texted this to the president's eu ambassador in se...

In my opinion it's schiff. >> beyond the obvious, it's not, what's the dangerous in that, that the sitting president of the united states saying that a sitting member of congress, chair of the house intelligence committee, could be the whistle-blower? >> well, first of all, i don't know how -- i mean, what this implies, i guess, is that somehow adam schiff was party to or listened in on the original conversation and then provided that to somebody in the intelligence community who then was going to write a whistle-blower complaint, which on its face is absurd. >> yeah. >> it's just another case...

You are required to protect whistle-blowers, no matter the voracity of what they allege. the reason for that is to ensure that wrongdoing, fraud, waste, abuse, moral, ethical lapses, whatever that, there is a legitimate and protected conduit for employees to convey that to appropriate authorities. in this case, the inspector general of the ig and, in turn, the congress. >> director clapper, is there any reason to believe that the president may know who the whistle-blower is? >> well, he may not know, but just -- as loath as i am in any way to identifying the whistle-blower, but just based on w...