people who are permitted to fire missiles into riyadh. just ask them to behave like a normal nation. i have every reason to think the iranian people want that for their country as well. this is a rich country with a deep civilization and a wonderful history. i am convinced the people of iran, when they can see a path forward, which will lead their country to stop behaving in this way, will choose that path. thank you all. i look forward to seeing you don't hear. have a good day. -- seeing you down here. >> thanks sir. >> a group of house conservatives held a news conference to discuss the resolution calling on attorney general jeff sessions to appoint a second special counsel. the group wants an investigation into special justice department and fbi misconduct, as well as

investigations into hillary clinton during the presidential campaign. this is 50 minutes.

it will be outlining fisa abuse how and why the hillary clinton probe and and the russia probe begin. ecialcalls for a sp second counsel with the understanding that the justice department cannot investigate itself. it is important to note the ranks of the doj and fbi are filled with few genetic americans who take their own seriously, and perform their jobs objectively with much respect for the rule of law. these are historic legendary agencies that require accountability regarding the misconduct that took place. it is important for these exceptional public servants and important agencies to continue their work moving forward stronger than ever before. thehe resolution states, concerns of the american people are serious, and the issues requiring an immediate unbiased and thorough investigation are

brought. we learned the doj, fbi or both appeared to have planted at least one person into donald trump's presidential campaign to surveilled the campaign. the section alone reminds us of how necessary this resolution is, as well is the appointment of a second special counsel. first we will discuss some of the misconduct related to how and why the hillary clinton probe ended, the fisa abuse, and finally the misconduct as to how and why the russia probe begin. with regards to secretary clinton, rules and protocol were violated with their use of a private email server. official communications were transmitted on an unsecured server, and include emails that contain classified information when they were sent. other emails retroactively deemed classified by the department of state's. former fbi director james comey

acknowledged 55 of these 60 eliciting a were classified as secret. was toe of the server avoid freedom of information act, and undue obstruct justice -- done to obstruct justice. various sensitive emails assumption to grand juries were destroyed on hillary clinton's private survey and destruction of hardware before they could be obtained by investigators. in a september 2015 meeting between loretta lynch and director comey, the attorney general instructed comey to treat the investigation as " a matter," watering down the investigation. chief of staff to hillary clinton during her tenure as secretary of state was offered

immunity from prosecution in exchange for access to her laptop. transcripts of changed by the judiciary committee, comey was ready to exonerate hillary clinton in may of 2016 when he began to draft a statement announcing the end of his investigation, when up to 14 key witnesses were even interviewed. comey stated during sworn testimony that she made the decision not to recommend criminal charges for secretary clinton after she was interviewed 2016. director comey in the final draft of his statement allowed an fbi agent to replace "grossly negligent" with "extremely careless," which is not punishable under federal law.

there is the june 27, 2016 infamous meeting between former president bill clinton in phoenix, arizona. immediately thereafter hillary clinton was exonerated. july 5, 2016, director comey violated doj rules and exonerated then candidate hillary clinton in a public statement to the media. one day later, the announcement followed from ag lynch that the doj investigation into hillary clinton would be closed with no charges. in september 2016, the fbi during examination of the personal laptop of anthony weiner, as part of an unrelated investigation into him sending explicitly sexual messages to a teenage girl, found classified emails belonging to his spouse huma abedin. it took until 2016 for director call me to announce to the relevant congressional

committees that he was reopening the investigation into hillary clinton, in addition, after the fbi failed to touch fbi director to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest after media reports surfaced noting questionable political donations. further investigation into whether director mccabe and other officials sought to purposefully delayed the release

of these illicit emails for politically motivated purposes is wanted. the doj failed to fully investigate serious concerns surrounding former president clinton, then secretary of state clinton, and connections to the company uranium one. throughout hillary clinton's tenure as secretary of state, a family foundation controlled by the chairman of uranium one made millions of dollars into the conservation which were not disclosed, i violation ofn an agreement secretary clinton had with the white house to publicly identify all donors. bill clinton was paid $500,000 for a speech in moscow by a kremlin linked moscow bank underwriting uranium one stock. a confidential informant who worked with the fbi was

threatened with reprisal by the justice department under ag lynch when he tried to come forward in 2016. senate judiciary committee launched a probe to investigate their uranium one matter, including whether federal agencies such as the department of state knew the fbi was looking into possible corruption when the deal was approved. an investigation noted a multistate investigation into the questionable dealings of the clinton foundation with corrupt donors was shut down in august 2016, when pressure was asserted on the fbi by senior officials within the obama justice department. the same report noticed shutting down the investigation into clinton and propriety and influence was connected to high-ranking officials in the fbi. ig's report also found deputy director mccabe, after

dissenting to the political pressure, attempted to later use unauthorized leaks to the press to create a false narrative that he was opposed to the closure of the investigation, that he did this in an attempt to salvage his reputation after claims of -- in october 2016, the fbi and doj used unverified sources to obtain warrants issued by the surveillance court -- the fisa surveil he was citizens, including carter page. resulting in surveillance of a broad array of private communications in the past, present, and future, including those of u.s. citizens not specifically targeted in the fisa laurent. fbi and doj officials submitted

an unverified -- failing to disclose that christopher steele was hired by the firm fusion gps, hired by the hillary clinton campaign to prepare this dossier, and that the source was unreliable and soon to be terminated as a source. informedcourt was not christopher steele was opposed to the election of donald trump, he was the sole source cited in it the eye reports, and -- cited in fbi reports. the fbi's mandatory vetting processes required for all fisa applicants instituted to ensure all the facts anre verified to support probable cause for warrant were not followed. former director comey admitted in sworn testimony june 8, 2016

that material contained in the steele dossier was known to be salacious and unverified. since fisa laurent applications are rarely turn down or a must never subject to appeal or presented with no public record with the government is not challenged by any defense, it is imperative to take extra care to validate the information building their case before they g rights step of waivin of a u.s. citizen without the opportunity to provide a defense. at the fisa court, the government has to present its case, but also the best evidence against its case. these deeply flawed and questionable fisa warrant applications using illicit sources and illegally biased intelligence -- politically biased intelligence were approved at the highest levels before being submitted to the fisa toward. it was fourth or not disclosed to the fisa that a ranking

official worked for fusion gps, and christopher steele submitted the cubans -- submitted documents through him to the fisa court. to the state has not been any evidence donald trump colluded the russians to win the 2016 election. there isn't evidence donald trump committed any crime to win the election. the initial fbi probe into alleged collusion with russia was launched based on questionable and insufficient intelligence and buys the motivations. as we have learned in recent both the fbi, doj or planted at least one person into donald trump's presidential campaign to infiltrate and surveillance the campaign.

the text contained grievous should ft "trump himself." an egregious oversight blamed on a technical glitch, and even after these messages were partially recovered in january 2018, many unanswered questions remained regarding impropriety and bias provideddirector comey notes on his conversations with president trump. comey admitted in sworn testimony to the senate committee june 8, 2017 that he had leaked this content to a personal friend and encouraged the friend to share material with the press to trigger a special counsel investigation. an investigation later revealed the personal friend of director a professor at

columbia law school. director comey's actions are a clear violation of nondisclosure agreements and a clear violation of fbi protocols regarding dissemination of sensitive information outside the bureau based on the privacy act of 1974. 2018, director mccabe was fired by jeff sessions, who noted mccabe lacked candor, including undergrowth on many occasions, and had partaken in unauthorized disclosure to the news media. after a wide reaching investigation into deputy director mccabe's conduct, a myriad of fbi and doj personnel have been demoted or resigned, including fbi director comey, chief of staff to the director, fbi general counsel james baker, fbi counsel page,

and assistant attorney general. the doj has failed to timely comply with several related document requests by congress providing members of congress with heavily redacted versions of some but not all documents demented, and offering an inadequate response to repeated requests after months of delay by the doj. as i prepare to introduce my colleagues for their remarks, in conclusion i like to point out while many in the media and american public have been trying to bring down the president without evidence that president trump colluded with russia to win the election, there is a ton of evidence of real misconduct that those same people have been attempting to completely sweep under the rug. i believe in equal scales of justice, that no one is above the law. that includes anyone regardless of last name. that includes anyone at the

highest levels of doj and fbi, especially when misconduct is committed in the performance of their duties to take down elected candidates. no one in the justice department can allow their own political bias to overwhelm their own objectivity and performance of their own duties. the second special counsel must be appointed and accountability is demanded for these great legendary historic agencies. with that, we are confident that these great agencies will be able to move forward stronger than they were ever before. at this time i would like to introduce congressman mark meadows. muchmeadows: thank you so for the resolution, the leadership it takes. clear, the- to be intent of the cosigners of this resolution, to make a request of our leadership to bring this resolution to the house floor to be voted on to point a second special counsel. it is also the position of many

in this group that the attorney general jeff sessions should relook at his decision to not appoint a second special counsel. the only thing that we have from mr. huber to evidence his work so far is an accumulation of frequent fire mouths. there has been no report, no investigation to speak of. i can tell you it is deeply troubling, when we talk about transparency, that we are not getting transparency from the fbi and the department of justice. that transparency that many times goes without saying. rod rosenstein and the department of justice, on a number of occasions, when they could tell the truth, remained silent. when director comey was out on his book tour, talking about the fact that he had a friend that

he shared the memo with. rod rosenstein knew it was not a friend, but indeed a special government employee. when director comey was talking about the fact that she only shared it with one friend, ron rosenstein knew he actually shared it with more than that, and yet the deputy attorney general remained silent. and when a number of us brought up the fact that there were reductions of material facts back in january, rod rosenstein again was silent. perhaps he is not silent when it comes to spinning his narrative. even today we continue to see leaks come out of the department of justice and fbi spinning a narrative that quite frankly is not supported by the facts. it is time we get to the facts. it is time we appoint a second special counsel. i think the leadership of all of those who have cosponsored -- it

is time for transparency, and it is time to allow the american people to know the truth. >> fbi james comey has been fired, fbi director of counterintelligence -- fbi counsel lisa page demoted and reassigned. what did all these fired, demoted, and reassigned people do in the obama administration? they ran the clinton investigation and ran an investigation into president trump's campaign. what did they do? they took this dossier, interested up -- dressed it up, took it to a secret court to get a secret warrant to spy on a citizen. when they took it to the court, they did not tell them important facts, like who paid for the documents.

did not tell them the guy who wrote the document had been fired by the fbi. yet they took it to a secret court to get a warrant to spy on a american citizen loosely associated with the trump campaign. now we learn they possibly paid informants to spy on the trump campaign? when you and i go to court, we have to give the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. they did not do that when they brought the dossier to court. now we learn they paid informants to spy on the trump campaign. in all those text messages, we have the one on september 2, s,"6, where they say "potu president obama "potus wants to know everything we are doing." the operative word being everything. that is a pretty darn big category. we believe the department of justice can handle this. don't worry, we can handle this, trust us, we will be just fine.

really? think about this question. can fly rosenstein oversee an obstruction of justice investigation into the firing of james comey when he wrote the memo recommending the firing of james comey? we have been pushing for 10 months for this. chairman meadows is exactly right. this should be brought to the floor. we should tell the doj we are sick and tired of the runaround. if this fact pattern doesn't warrant a second special counsel, somebody tell me what does. this is exactly what is needed. i appreciate the gentleman's leadership. i want this on the floor as quick as it can possibly get. give the american people the answers to the questions that they have. >> the ig is supposedly looking

into a lot of this stuff. while there is an important role for the ig, and i don't think their work is mutually exclusive, the ig is not equipped with the tools to be able to get set of facts, because he does not have subpoena power, cannot bring people from outside the agency, and certainly doesn't have any tools to hold people accountable for violations of law. i am eagerly awaiting the ig report about the hillary case, and maybe someday there will be an ig report that will be beneficial, but it is not sufficient in order to get accountability. some people say, hey, these special councils are unruly, it is not a good idea. understand, there is a different between ken starr in the 1980's when you had an independent counsel, which i think is unconstitutional. justice scalia did. that was operating outside of

the true indicative branch. robert mueller is a doj employee physically. he is not an independent. he is supervised supposedly by rod rosenstein. the reason this investigation has become unruly is because rosenstein never identified a crime to be investigated at the outset, and he has not done anything to keep mueller on target. i think mueller tells rosenstein what to do. what we are asking for, i don't want the special counsel involved in extraneous stuff. answer the cor questionse and move on or hold people accountable. if you have someone who was supervising that, and was serious about keeping the trains on time, you can do this in a way that can be done much more expeditiously than some of these have previously. thanks.

grateful foro bringing this resolution. we need a vote on it quickly. that has to be on the floor. back when mueller was appointed, there was nobody any more outraged than i was. i knew of the damage he had done to the fbi. he had purged the fbi of thousands of years of experienced, purged fbi training materials so they could not recognize radical islam. this was falling into the category of what mueller was good at, covering his own rear end. also in this case covering that of rod rosenstein. rosenstein was a u.s. attorney. mueller was fbi director. wiseman was working on the case as well to investigate russia's

legal effort to get control of u.s. uranium. softself-titled that -- -peddled that. they had to keep things quiet so the council on foreign relations on investment in the united states would vote to be able to allow the sale of uranium that would end up in the hands of russia. rosenstein let the public know about russia's illegal efforts, there is no way they could have approved that sale. then of course the clinton foundation wouldn't have gotten so much money that changed hands. these guys were disqualified. if they had any decency, they would have recused themselves from a, appointing a special counsel,b, be a special counsel. this was just robert mueller,

who was shortly before that was begging to get the job as director of the fbi. he had no business doing this. i think eric holder, although he misrepresented facts before the judiciary committee, he was not misrepresenting facts to see an end. he said, i have known robert mueller for 20 years, he is not going to stop until he gets to the trouble on something. that is the trouble. we need a special prosecutor to investigate the special prosecutor, to investigate rosenstein. rosenstein is a guy that did let's fireying comey. he had no reason being in this, but there is a reason. if mueller had any interest in letting the public know this was unjust, he would go out of his

way to hire people not connected to the clintons and democratic party, that way people would know this is a just and fair action. since it was not just and fair, they needed people that would cover themselves, that that is what has happened. it was june of last year. i told president trump, no one needs firing more than robert mueller, but you can't be the one to fire him, because we have some we can need republicans -- weak-kneede republicans who will come after you. like any good idea, it takes a while to catch on. now it is apparent to some of the people i have great respect for behind me. i hope we will get a vote and force this to a head.

>> i'm just wondering, what is the standard for the appointment of a special counsel at the doj? you have rosenstein appoint a council to investigate the president based on a slow boil suspicion of carter page, a byadopoulos memo written someone who has been demoted and reassigned, and a dossier bought by the clinton campaign and curated by russians? at one point you have rosenstein sitting next to mueller, pitching mueller as a replacement for james comey, and not 24 hours later, you have rosenstein selecting mueller to be the special counsel. here the factual basis seems to be a lot stronger. mr. zeldin showed great leadership. speaker ryan has always said to all of us, he wants a house with a bottom-up process that is

working again its activities. 10 months ago members of the judiciary committee: 42nd special counsel. chairman bob goodlatte at the judiciary committee, chairman trey gowdy also called for a second special counsel. mr. zeldin was joined by the majority leader, the majority whip steve scalise. we have done what has been asked of us as a membership. we have uncovered the true facts. we have persuaded leadership at the conference and committee level. we need speaker ryan to put this resolution on the floor so that the full house of representatives can answer the question of legitimacy and need of a second special counsel to investigate what i perceived to be serious crimes and impropriety in the fbi and department of justice.

georgia's 10th district. zeldin like to thank le lee for his leadership and everyone on this stage for keeping this issue at the forefront. let me bring this down to why this matters to the american people. what does this matter specifically to the american people? truth, justice, and transparency are not partisan issues or concepts, they are the backbone of american government. when we begin to allow people to ignore the rule of law, or to set a standard of their own to abide by, then it becomes our responsibility to shine light on that, and in this case to conduct an impartial investigation. there can be no question at this point, as it appears so evident that the fbi and doj, at the

bottom line, wanted hillary indicted ando be they did not want donald trump to be president of the united states. this ought to be a grave concern to every citizen in this country. in light of all the series issues raised, the allegations, we have got to get to the bottom of this to determine whether or not the department of justice and fbi tipped the scales of justice. bottomot to get to the whether or not their attempts were to benefit one political candidate to the heart of another. we've got to get to the bottom of the issue whether they circumvented the rule of law. it is time for our leadership to exhibit leadership and get this resolution to the floor for a vote. the credibility of the department of justice fband fbis

at stake, but what is also a state is the american people's ability to trust fbi, the department of justice, congress, all of our roles to get to the bottom of this. i thank you all for being with me this afternoon. it is time we get to the bottom of this. >> thank you all for being here. i am really just grateful to my colleague from new york, resulting. has the tenacity on this issue. we outlined very quickly the points that were made, what we think our potential violations of law. we are still waiting. it is important we restore the integrity of the fbi and department of justice so we have equal justice under law, so the american citizens know what we

are doing is looking at everything legally -- everything equally, and not just picking winners and losers along political lines. if the tables were turned, this would be another modern-day watergate. we need to look into this. a second counsel is our only option at this point. i applaud my colleagues, echo t heir sentiments. i just want to say thank you to lee and to everyone here for standing strong on this issue and you for recording this so the american people know we will stand for equal justice under law. >> i am from arizona's fourth. and you wonder why this matters. you, foolce, shame on me twice, shame on me. how much equity have to see from federal government from fast and furious to --

we have the power and purview to oversee this application. the fundamental aspect of our republic is to hold everybody equally accountable to the rule of law. when you look at the things mr. sultan -- mr. zeldin orchestrated, this was an orchestrated campaign against a duly elected government. that is why there is nothing short of treason for those that participate in this fisa. the american people deserve the truth, and they deserve to everyone is held to the same standard of law. from arizona's, fifth district. forthankful to lee zeldin bringing this forward. i am reminded of what a former arizona congressman said,

everything has been said, it just hasn't been said by everybody yet. what has been said is dynamite. it is the scandal of our time. the scandal perhaps of our lifetime. there are two key components explored to be really and outlined more. number one, that is referenced to the former administration where the president was to be informed of all things going on. we need to know what that meant. we need to know how high this scandal went. that is imperative. number two, the apparent motivation for all this misconduct, going back to the clinton scandal right on into the current scandal, is political in nature. the is antithetical to what

founding of this country, the fabric of this nation today should be and was. those two things are things we need to continue to investigate. we need a special counsel to investigate everything we have iterated in this resolution, but moreover, we need to get to the bottom of what the previous president knew with regard to this misconduct. we also need to know why this abuse of powerw -- abuse of power was performed for political purposes. that can never happen in this country again. southeasternt north carolina, seventh district. i want to applaud my colleagues for their leadership on this. i am proud to stand with them. i firmly believe that obviously

our country is divided. a lot of folks are divided in terms of their opinion on our president. i think the vast majority of americans believe in a fair process. i will be candid and say i am not a big fan of special counsels. i think one is necessary in this particular matter moving forward so we can hope to create a much more fair process and get to the real truth of the matter. i too encourage our leadership to bring this to the floor.the american people deserve the truth. and not only that, it is imperative i believe for the future and survival of our republic. thank you. >> i would like to thank all of my colleagues that are here, the chairs and committee members of the house and senate for their hard work to cover all these facts. i would be happy to answer any

questions anyone has. >> can talk about your discussions with past leadership why this is not coming up with a vote? >> we have not even introduced it yet. we will introduce it in the coming hours. we encourage our colleagues tested in this issue to sign on. -- interested in this issue to sign on. we will be engaged with all of our callings regardless of whether they sign on to discuss this issue with them. we would certainly like to see a vote on the house floor. the resolution will be introduced in the coming hours. >> have you discussed this with past leadership? >> there have been discussions in terms of the frustration of where we are with this document, but also the need for a second special counsel. we have members of leadership that have called for it, chairman of committee that have done so. they are fully aware.

at this point, it is a drastic step, but quite frankly these are drastic facts that continue to bubble to the surface. it is time we get a response. i don't know they will be surprised by any of the demands of this request. the resolution is something mr. lead on.s taken the we plan to have further conversations on that. >> can you give us an update where things stand with this meeting worked on at the white house, where you are supposedly going to get some of these documents? rep. meadows: the president had a meeting with doj and fbi officials yesterday. i applaud him for his spirit of transparency. i can tell you in my conversations with the president, he has been concerned about one thing, and that is transparency with the american people. that meeting yesterday gives us great hope that the documents

will be able to be reviewed by the appropriate intel committee members, not broadly by congress. >> both democrats and republicans, or just republicans? rep. meadows: certainly i think you would have ranking members as well. i think there would be more interest on our side, because the allegation of wrongdoing certainly would be supported more by our side than the democrat colleagues. at this point my understanding is in the coming day, indeed this week, that chairman eunice nunezairman -- chairman and chairman gowdy will be able to review those document. we have had a lot of rhetoric, but not a lot of action. i am not optimistic that will happen, but i can tell you at this point that is what we are hopeful for. --is this another meeting

with republicans refuse to attend? rep. meadows: i can tell you another meeting without evidence and without seeing the documents is worthless. there are two subpoenas that are outstanding that have not been complied with. from oversight and judiciary, we have a subpoena that is there. this president has turned over 1.2 million documents to special concert we will, and yet our doj iod fbi in a seven-month per has delivered less than 19,000 documents out of a possible 1.2 million documents, most of those duplicative. just having a briefing is not what we are talking about. we actually need to see the documents.

we believe we have a clear understanding of what is there. reports to onia e side, what does the evidence show about the number of informants used to target the trump campaign? rep. meadows: i think at this particular point that would be in a classified setting. as you know, we have had a number of documents we have reviewed in a non-classified setting where you can make the argument that there was more than one, but that is certainly not something i would be privy to and can speak with authority on. >> go ahead. >> you guys talked to president trump often. has he asked for this? >> has he spoken with him? >> listen, this initiative is driven by mr. zeldin and

members of the house to suggest the -- to suggest that president has requested a second special counsel, that is not the case. i do not comment on any conversations i have had, but i can say on that one, he has not requested it. >> have you spoken with him about the idea of a second consul in general? >> as author of this resolution, i have not had any conversations with the president. in regards to the call for a second special counsel, this is 100% the product of talking to my colleagues signing on to the resolution, 100%. for clarification congressman zeldin. was givennce show -- information by his wife or fusion gps, and that that

information was used to renew fisa >> bruce is in direct communication with christopher steel. there is no doubt that the connection and conflict was real and one that resulted in information we passed through bruce through the justice department to the fisa court as an intermediary. quickly.t really i have spoken to other more moderate members of your caucus, one of whom it used the word crazy to describe all of you and this effort, can you respond to that? >> do you want to give us a name? [laughter] >> in what context? this resolution specifically? >> this pursuit. that a separate and equal branch of government wants the information for oversight for the american people, if that is

crazy you have to take that up with the guys who wrote the constitution because that is what we are supposed to do. just give us the information that we are entitled to see so we can get answers to the questions to that -- that the american people have and that all of you in the press have. that is exactly what we are supposed to do. the cousin we have been so frustrated this is the effort we have to do to get to the bottom of this. one who has read more of these documents personally than i have. i would challenge any of my colleagues, if they want to be informed on the probable cause and the real reason for us requesting that, they can come and we can spend weeks reading over the documents that i have read over the last seven months and i can assure you there is a there, there. >> i would just add that what you havezy is, when the former attorney general meeting with the former president, the husband of the target of an investigation on a tarmac, then immediately

exonerating hillary clinton. what seems crazy to me is that uce ore is br serving as an intermedia first this -- for christopher steel. it seems crazy that james come he would write an exoneration for hillary clinton. what seems crazy to me is you would go to a fisa court and be presenting this dossier and not thatlling the fisa judges the information is unverified, that it was paid for by hillary clinton and the democratic national committee, and providing all of the other information that was important for those isaac judges, -- for those pfizer judges to know what the evidence was. as far as what's crazy about this is that everything in this resolution is accurate. that is crazy. some of relates to

these document requests that continue to be made, on a part of the justice department to turn those over, not because of the classified nation of the requests but material involved, and also because there is an ongoing investigation so there is concern about sharing with the subject seven investigation materials relevant to their investigation. should the right -- should the white house ensure that officials are walled off from any of that are shared and that members of the congress are not sharing any of the sensitive documents that might be helpful to the president and his legal team before they prepare for the meeting? skepticism of them filtering the information they provide congress, we have cut them redacting information. there was not redacting of a national security concern or methods, but because it was personally embarrassing to them that there are talking about their relationship with a judge.

the department of justice has lost their credibility to itself filter based on their own conduct. counsel solvesl back against that concern. if a second special counsel is you have independent eyes that can collect the evidence, make a review and bring in action forward. you could in essence divorce those concerns from a process that had more integrity. we think that he has laid out that correct process. >> i would just add that, all the concerns about not providing information for national security concerns, then you provide the information and see that there is nothing at risk happens time and time again. after you end up reading the documents, the real reason is that it would cause embarrassment to people who did the wrong thing. made it clearl that you are pursuing this information because the american people deserve transparency,

what you do not really get around to the questions, did the president encourage this effort at all? >> one edge of percent, absolutely not. >> that if you have had conversations with the president about this? >> from those who answered the earlier question, they said the same. speaking for myself as the author of this resolution, 100% of my conversations with my interactions with anyone that has been working directly with my colleagues who are signing on to this resolution, this was a product of those discussions entirely and i have not spoken to the president in any way shape or form, as far as the context and purpose of this resolution. >> thank you everyone. you, everyone.

>> coming up tonight on c-span. treasury secretary steven mnuchin testifies on the 2019 budget request for his department. a group of house republicans calls for a second special counsel investigation into the alleged informant in the trump campaign. after that, facebook ceo mark sucker berg testifies before the .uropean parliament rundown of live events wednesday. house meets at 10:00 a.m. and continue work on the defense program bills. the senate works on several nominations and on c-span3. secretary of state mike pompeo testifies for the first time as secretary at a house foreign affairs committee meeting.

coverage begins at 9:00 a.m. house democrats here from high school students about gun violence in the afternoon. treasury secretary steven mnuchin testified on the proposed 2019 budget for his .epartment irs commissioner also testified about various irs needs and gave an update on the implementation of the new tax law for the next filing season. his hearing is just under two hours.