christopher steele had reported as much. at the time in the dossier. >> been forced to acknowledge he had encounters with senior russian officials continuing to say it was meaningless and wasn't about collusion and the things in the dossier are not true but the account significantly changed. >> what is now the most notorious trump campaign/russia meeting happened in june 2016 at trump tower. donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared curb her met with a group of russians with kremlin connections. an e-mail train shows they accepted the meeting on the understanding that they would be given russian government provided dirt on hillary clinton. one e-mail read, this is part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. the president's son, son-in-law and former campaign chairman have all denied that anything of significance happened at that meeting. here's what donald jr. said about it on fox news. >> i can't help what someone sends me. i read it. i responded accordingly. >> the trump people, you know, refuse in lot of wa

christopher steele had reported as much. at the time in the dossier. >> been forced to acknowledge he had encounters with senior russian officials continuing to say it was meaningless and wasn't about collusion and the things in the dossier are not true, but nonetheless, the account has significantly changed from the first time we heard about this trip. >> what is now the most notorious trump campaign/russia meeting happened in june 2016 at trump tower. donald trump jr., paul manafort the president's son-in-law jared kushner met with a group of russians with kremlin connections. a now e-mail chain shows that they accepted the meeting on the understanding that they would be be given russian government provided dirt on hillary clinton. one e-mail read that this is part of russia and its government support for mr. trump. the president's son, son-in-law and former campaign chairman have all denied that anything of significance happened at that meeting. here's what donald jr. said about it on fox news. >> i can't help what someon

christopher steele had reported as much. at the time in the dossier. >> been forced to acknowledge he had encounters with senior russian officials continuing to say it was meaningless and wasn't about collusion and the things in the dossier are not true but the account significantly changed. >> what is now the most notorious trump campaign/russia meeting happened in june 2016 at trump tower. donald trump jr., paul manafort and jared curb her met with a group of russians with kremlin connections. an e-mail train shows they accepted the meeting on the understanding that they would be given russian government provided dirt on hillary clinton. one e-mail read, this is part of russia and its government's support for mr. trump. the president's son, son-in-law and former campaign chairman have all denied that anything of significance happened at that meeting. here's what donald jr. said about it on fox news. >> i can't help what someone sends me. i read it. i responded accordingly. >> the trump people, you know, refuse in lot of wa

steele, christopher steele. >> and we will make america great again. thank you, everybody. >> if you were looking to investigate donald trump's alleged russia connections, christopher steele would seem like the perfect fit. >> he can tell you off the top of his head the leading members of the russian mafia, people who have influence in the kremlin and so on. >> nigel west knows christopher steele. he's a writer and historian whose sperkt is british intelligence. west says that steele was mi-6's man in moscow in the early nine fiend 90s. >> and thereafter he ended his career as the head of the branch that trains new entry intelligence officers. and that's actually considered to be a pretty important role. >> after retiring, steele started a new company called or business business intelligence located in this building in london. it specialized in getting corporate executives deep targeted intel on foreign countries they were dealing with. steele's specialty was russia. >> i have listened to his presentations on what he calls the kleptocracy. had is the p

steel felt about it. >> in late june with the permission of his clients at fusion, christopher steel met with an old fbi contact in the u.k. his intel was raw and unverified but his concern was real. >> you don't gather information like this and not pass it onto the fbi. that would be wrong. passing onto the fbi would be the right thing to do. >> the fbi had interacted with steel before on the fifa soccer bribery scandal and other matters. christopher steel was a known quantity and they were interested in what he had to say about trump and russia. after the first meeting, the burro told steel they wanted more. steel promised to keep them in the loop. weeks later on july 19th, 2016, steel sent off the second trump memo. this was the headline, russia secret kremlin meetings attended by trump advisor carter page in moscow. according to steel sources, the meetings involved a move to lift ukraine related western sanctions against russia. >> usa! >> on the day that report was filed, the republican national convention was getting underway in cleveland, ohio. at the time a few american journ

christopher steel had this story before the rest of america did. and he got it from russian sources. and. whether or not the compromised, the alleged american/russia conspiracy and ever proven out, our understanding of what russia did and why and how well they did it and whether they had help, it's all still in its early stages. >> what is important is that the american public gets the truth, the full truth and nothing but the truth about what happened in our elections in 2016. >> it took an ex-british spy to give us our first look into what moscow may have been up to. american investigators and journalists and prosecutors will now have to fill in the rest of the picture. >>> good evening. i'm lawrence o'donnell, and this is tonight's "last word." there is breaking news on the special prosecutor's investigation involving the white house staffer who has spent the most time with president trump. white house communications director hope hicks. she's a 29-year-old former model who worked for the trump family in public relations before donald trump ran

in fact, as you pointed out, they traveled to london to interview christopher steele. as we pointed out, he was the person who put the dossier together. we should also point out that none of the charges against the four trump campaign associates that mueller's team brought, they don't reference the dossier. certainly as i pointed out, it was one piece of the puzzle. >> we also know it was important enough, was it not, that when then president-elect donald trump was a couple of weeks away from his inauguration that the most senior intelligence officials in the u.s. took the time to brief him on it? >> that's right. in fact, the director of national intelligence -- former director of national intelligence, i should say, james clapper, told me that the concern in the intelligence and fbi was that the russians could have leverage over the future president. while at that time they had not verified the dossier, they felt it was important enough, especially considering the fact it was put together by christopher steele, somebody they viewed as credible, they felt it was impor

did they pay christopher steele? and when you get to the whole dossier issue, the fact that ohr knew all of that and he is four doors down from rod rosenstein? >> it is incredible, sean. and right now, we know one thing, that nunes has been cleared by the ethics committee. for eight months, they sidelined the chair of the intelligence committee on one question. i've talked to sources up in congress that said that this was incredible.ss would have never happened in the past. those are the questions that they want answered and that is what they are seeking. they will subpoena bruce ohr, they have already presented those questions to the doj, we know that the inspector general is investigating this,ey and these are the questions that the american public wants answered as well as me, john, everybody else, you. so there has to be some answer coming from the fbi especially from fbi director wray. >> sean: are the house of cards going to blow down? >> i think so. and it is a shame, there are so many lawyers that do not have

including information from christopher steel. and it has been chugging along ever since on two tracks. both the collusion and the obstruction of justice track. and there is no sign that either of those are finishing up, despite what we're hearing from some trump allies any time soon. we have potentially a trial of paul manafort and rick gates many months from now. so the mueller investigation, i think 2018 is a crucial year but there is no sign that it is wrapping up. >> so obstruction, nick? which is one -- one path that the mueller team is looking at. and of course the issue of collusion. >> and conspiracy. that is the crime. the crime is conspiracy. >> what is your sense based on the reporting into the new year as to the way mueller might be leaning. he is equally weighing both of these paths. >> think the big enchilada is the conspiracy to break into the democratic national committee in violation of the federal computer crime law and to use those e-mails to help donald trump get elected. all of that is motive as to why donald

this dossier, clinton campaign paid christopher steele, paying russians for a bunch of baloney, takes a warrant to spy on americans and christopher steele was paid by the fbi, the agent who collected the information so this goes on and peter struck gets dismissed, the guy who ran the clinton investigation, it starts to point to this idea the government was working with one major political party for disrupting another party's nominee, not fair to donald trump, not fair, not how it is supposed to work. todd: their reviewing and handing over the text messages, 10,000 of them, it will take a while to get through them. jillian: the united nations security council calling an emergency meeting as protests explode on the gaza strip after donald trump announces a changed is relapse capital. we are live on the ground. todd: icicle student on the debate team suspended for debating, wait until you hear this when "fox and friends" first returns on friday morning. ♪ up. up. let's go to sumatra. where's sumatra? good question. this is win. and that's win's goat, adi. the coffee here is amazing. be

did they pay christopher steele? and when you get to the whole dossier issue, the fact that bruce ohr knew all of that and he is four doors down from rod rosenstein? >> it is incredible, sean. and right now, we know one thing, that nunes has been cleared by the ethics committee. they sidelined the chair of the intelligence committee on one question. i've talked to sources up in congress that said that this was incredible. would have never happened in the past. those are the questions that they want answered and that is what they are seeking. or they will subpoena bruce ohr, they have already presented those questions to the doj, we know that the inspector general is investigating this, and these are the questions that the american public wants answered as well as mean, john, everybody else, you. so there has to be some answer coming from the fbi especially from fbi director wray. >> sean: are the house of cards going to blow down? >> i think so. and it is a shame, there are so many lawyers that do not have a politica

potentially christopher steele was also, it's been reported, paid by the fbi. all this goes on and peter strzok is dismissed from the mueller team. he ran the investigation. it starts to point to this idea that the government was working with one major political party to go after the other party's nominee and that's not fair to mr. trump, president trump. that's not fair to, it's not how it's supposed to work. >> shannon: do you think you will get an opportunity to question mr. strzok? >> i hope so. my guess is his fingerprints are all over this application. he was the deputy head of counterintelligence at the fbi. he's probably one of the key guys and all the applications they go to the fisa court. i want to question him. we have mr. rosenstein next wee week. there are lots of questions. give us the documents. prove us wrong. >> shannon: one of your colleagues across the aisle said these attacks and accusations about the fbi are politically motivated. >> i predicted these attacks on the fbi will grow louder and more brazen as the special counsel does his work

they paid the law firm who paid fusion gps who paid christopher steele within paid russians. >> now we have a special agent. that same agent is the one who repeatedly interviewed secretary clinton and an embryo that you and i have never seen conducted that way before. >> whether the dossier was used to generate surveillance with the fisa court, that needs to be disclosed to congress. >> we have sent here for almost two hours and have heard nary a word from my republican colleagues about russian interference in our election. >> martha: to get the idea of what it was like. willie gomer during the interviews this afternoon, he asked about specific names of the fbi had. >> he had political bias against the trip and administration? >> no. >> mike mcgarity? >> no. >> ryan hartman? >> no. >> martha: here now, willie gomer after my colleague across the aisle said he heard nary a word about russian influence, i went ahead and said i'm glad you brought this up basically because we need to talk about the russian pollution and try to get uranium and -- we brought up the russian collusio- >> martha

. >> did the fbi pay christopher steele? i asked jeff sessions an wouldn't answer the question. did they look at this dossier? it's been disproven it's a bunch of:national enquirer early and fake news garbage. did they check it out before they took it to the fisa court? all this can be cleared up if they release the application that they took to the court. they can give it to the judiciary committee, the committee with oversight over the justice community. i think they did use that dossier as a basis sport warrant to spy on president trump's campaign. lou: your charges put it straightforwardly that the fbi leadership nactd a corrupt and unlawful manner -- enacted in a corrupt and unplawfl manner. >> peter strzok interest viewed abedin, interviewed hillary clinton. he took the exoneration statement and changed. and they kicked him off for a few text messages because they are anti-trump? there has to be more to this story. i'm convinced he's part of the team that took the dossier to the fisa court. the dossier that was paid fo

when they found nothing there, moved on to try to discredit christopher steele and the fbi and we're seeing intensification of that effort. think it's driven by the idea if they can discredit the dossier and christopher steele they can somehow make the russia investigation go away or impeach the results that bob mueller comes up with, regardless of whether it has anything to do with the dossier. i will say this to underscore what my colleague mark warner said, this is a precarious moment for our democracy with two categories of republican members of congress, one saying and acting the part that if this investigation gets too close to threatening either the president or our majority and chairmanships, we're prepared to burn down the house. and second kind of republicans who are standing mute while they do it. and that makes it a very precarious situation. i think these attacks on the institutions, these attacks on bob mueller, completely unfounded, really threaten to do incalculable and long-term damage to the whole administration of justice in this country. >> can i ask you a technic

when they found nothing there, moved on to try to discredit christopher steele and the fbi and we're seeing intensification of that effort. i think it's driven by the idea if they can discredit the dossier and christopher steele, that somehow they can make the russia investigation go away or impeach the results that bob mueller comes up with, regardless of whether it has nothing to do with the dossier. i will say this to underscore what my colleague mark warner said, this is a precarious moment for our democracy with two categories of republican members of congress, one saying and acting the part that if this investigation gets too close to threatening either the president or our majority and our chairmanships, we're prepared to burn down the house. and a second category of republicans who are standing mute while they do it. and that makes it a very precarious situation. i think these attacks on the institutions, these attacks on bob mueller, which are completely unfounded, really threaten to do incalculable and long-term damage to the whole administration of justice in this country.

-- i mean with christopher steele. i don't know if they concocted this whole thing to say let's come up with this dirty dossier so that we can have a reason to spy on the president. it just looks like that might have happened. looks shady. pete: maybe there is something there so we can use it to justify. ainsley: right. which is so corrupt. you can't do that. we shouldn't have to subpoena people. where is jeff sessions? why isn't jeff sessions saying we will give you the information. you don't have to subpoena it. steve: here's the thing, when you look at the names now, every day there are more names. pete: we are learning a new name every day. steve: couple days before we learned about peter strzok and his girlfriend who was having the affair with, extramarital, lisa paige, she was an attorney for mueller. and then have you weissmann. and then i saw this morning have you jeannie rhee who joined the counselor''s team. she sunday scrutiny. she used to the work at the clinton foundation. also a partner at a law firm wher

why was bruce meeting with christopher steele before and then glenn simpson after? why was he meeting them, and what was he discussing? the fact that his wife was a part of fusion gps, that's a huge conflict of interest and that's a problem. another problem, which an fbi agent brought up to me tonight, was actually robert mueller. if they were talking about robert mueller special counsel they were saying if you look at mccabe, going back to auntie mccabe. his history, he was promoted all the way up to the number three when mueller was still in charge of the fbi. there's another potential conflict there. >> laura: i want to ask you about jim, chief of staff of the fbi. reports are that he is going to be subpoenaed to testify along again with lisa paige, who of course is the paramore of peter strzok. both of them are going to be returning because we don't know if he is already given any testimony, correct? >> that's correct. we don't want to jump the gun here. we only have bits and pieces of information. there's a lot of information that was done classified or behind

ohr met with glenn simpson, the founder of fusion gps, and christopher steele, the former spy. yesterday we learned ohr's wife worked for fusion gps during the presidential campaign. today the white house stopped short of endorsing the call for another special prosecutor. >> if we are going to continue to investigate things, let's look at something where there is some real evidence and real proof of wrongdoing. >> the president's legal team has not made any type of formal request. attorney general jeff sessions spoke to fox news producer jake gibson said he already has a senior attorney in place to review such cases. >> to recommend to me if standards for special counsel are met and the recommended one should be established. >> president trump did not weigh in today, his only public appearance, to assign the national defense authorization act for it on twitter, the president lashed out against kirsten gillibrand for demanding he resign in the face of renewed accusations of sexual impropriety. the president tweeting: "lightweight senator kirsten gillibrand, a total flunky for ch

i think christopher steele was more of a cover to make it look like an intelligence product. but to this day, the fbi can't verify anything in it other than one person associated with trump traveled to russia at some point, so this stuff is bogus. it's fake news. and you expect that kind of stuff to be generated in the course of a political campaign. but if that is presented to the fbi, and then they are taking that unverified dossier and launching a federal counter intelligence investigation without anything more, to me, that raises some serious questions. and was it peter strzok who was involved? remember, the key text message was he was in andrew mccabe's office, and they were talking about oh donald trump can't win and strzok says i don't think the fib can take that risk we need an insurance policy basic live against trump's electric. of the question weastles walls the dossier subsequent investigation he referenced in those text messages. >> mark: what you are saying here is it comes before a caesar judge who isn't an expert in intelligence matters but it's got the fbi, k

david corn was the first reporter to describe the existence of the christopher steele trump russia dossier. he also says that this fbi official, james baker, was not his source for the dossier story. honestly, i'm not even sure republicans care about that. i think they just care that he talked to a reporter. isn't that impeachable? certainly it's corrupt or liberal or something. you step back from these individual attacks they're making against the fbi and all these various fbi officials against comey, mueller, mccabe and now against baker, what republicans are doing is starting to work their way down the list of all the fbi witnesses who could corroborate james comey on obstruction of justice. we know they're going after comey directly. we know there are five or six of these witnesses, senior officials at the fbi who comey told. as of right now they're trying to destroy two of them, going after mccabe and baker. but who doesn't think they're just going to keep going down that list? everybody is focused on whether or not the president is going to fire robert mueller. but what the republica

david corn was the first reporter to describe the existence of the christopher steel trump/russia dossier. he also says that this fbi official, james baker, was not his source for the dossier story. honestly, i'm not even sure republicans care about that. i think they just care that he talked to a reporter. isn't that impeachable? certainly it's corrupt or liberal or something. you step back from these individual attacks they're making against the fbi and various fbi officials against comey, mueller, mccabe and baker, what republicans are doing is, they're starting to work their way down the list of all the fbi witnesses who could corroborate james comey on the president's alleged obstruction of justice. we know they're going after comey directly. we know there are five or six of these witnesses, senior officials at the fbi who comey told. as of right now they're trying to destroy two of them, mccabe and baker. who doesn't think they're just going to keep going down that list? everybody is focused on whether or not the president is going to fire robert mueller. what the republicans are tr

steele. she said she had no knowledge of the dossier and meeting with the committee today as well as an attorney with the law firm perkins which is the firm that retained the services of gps the opposition research firm behind the trump/russia dossier. the senate intelligence committee is meeting with bruce orr, recently demoted official with the justice department amid the discovery he did meet with christopher steele and his wife working with fusion gps. a lot of questions from the senate intelligence committee which has not been able to meet with christopher steele. the larger question here is what point do these investigations wrap up, concerns around the house side that this could end as soon as this week. the democrats say this is what the republicans are moving towards. the republicans are pushing back saying this is part of a deep dive investigation and it will be over as soon as it's over but can't go on forever, so signs of the partisan tension growing over these investigations befo

steele and the people who paid for fusion gps. i'm talking about those people. >> the bread crumbs to follow those arguments. matt lewis, i want to bring you into this conversation right now. i just don't think there's any question at this point that there are republicans trying to discredit the mueller investigation right now. i asked jim jordan and tried to get him to say whether or not he coordinated that message with the white house. he said he's talked to the white house and about the mueller investigation but not in any coordination. your thoughts? >> very clearly, donald trump wants and donald trump supporters want to discredit institutions that hold them accountable. they want to discredit the deep state and the immediate yeah. the problem i have is these institutions are going out of their way to help donald trump do that. if you look at robert mueller, six of the 15 lawyers on his team were hillary clinton donors. you have the one tweet coming, you know, from the guy having an affair who says we can't take that chance th

the senate intelligence committee has not been able to meet with christopher steele, so they'll probably get some splenl intelligence, perhaps, from bruce orr about what exactly he knows about that dossier. as i mentioned, the concern among the house democrats is that this is part of a push by the republicans to end this investigation this week. the staff is traveling up to new york this week to meet with rona graf, who is one of president trump's old associates, a former personal assistant, concern among these members. on the democratic side, why not bring them here to washington so we can all meet with them. the concern is this is going to be an effort to end this investigation this week. the republicans push back, saying that democrats are merely on a witch hunt. this is a deep dif investigation. some of the partisan tensions that linger in this investigation as we head into christmas here, guys. >> all right, manu raju on the hill, thank you for the reporting. joining us now is cnn legal and national security analyst, asha r rangapo. a lot to go through this morn g morning. but let's

with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dossier it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate your rhenium one n. fusion g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard way in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that have been during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just extraordinary i mean we have and it took quite a bit of effort for congress to get this kind of the this information i mean they had to really put in they're still obstructing requests from congress here i mean don't we need a little bit more transparency at the f.b.i. about all this go ahead richard. peter do you assume your viewers know about alice in wonderland wher

with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dossier it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate iranian one and future. g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard weigh in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that happen during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for a fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just extraordinary i mean and we have and it took quite a bit of effort for congress to get this kind of the this information i mean they had to really put in they're still obstructing requests from congress here i mean don't we need a little bit more transparency at the f.b.i. about all this go ahead richard. peter do you assume your viewers know about alice in wonderland wh

with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dossier it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate iranian one n. fusion g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard way in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that have been during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just. extraordinary i mean and we have and it took quite a bit of effort for congress to get this kind of the this information i mean they had to really put in they're still obstructing requests from congress here i mean don't we need a little bit more transparency at the f.b.i. about all this go ahead richard. peter do you assume your viewers know about alice in wonderland wher

did the fbi pay christopher steele for that dossier? if he is not capable of answering the questions. he has got no business being the deputy director of the fbi. >> the doj agreed to make mccabe available to the house committees today but only in a classified setting. in a letter an assistants attorney general said, quote: mr. mccabe will not be in a position to discuss matters that are within the scope of the investigation of special counsel robert mueller. the letter then went on to say, quote: we respectfully request that the interview transcripts not be made public. on the other side of the pill today, also behind closed doors the senate intelligence committee heard from bruce ohr a former associate deputy attorney general was demoted as fox news exclusively reported after he had undisclosed meetings with operatives tied to the firm that produced the trump dossier. democrats are warning all of this is part of an effort to discredit the investigation into russia's involvement in the 2016 election. >> what's going on behind those clo

with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dossier it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate your a m one n fusion g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard way in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that have been during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just extraordinary i mean we have and it took quite a bit of effort for congress to get this kind of the this information i mean they had to really put in they're still obstructing requests from congress here i mean don't we need a little bit more transparency at the f.b.i. about all this go ahead richard. peter do you assume your viewers know about alice in wonderland where up

fusion gps is the company that hired christopher steele with hillary's money. the associate attorney general's wife worked for fusion gps and ohr arranges a meeting after the election with fusion gps which could be for the purpose of covering his own tracks or to get their stories straight in case someone talks. there you have it. abbreviated version a criminal cabal like a crime family in the movies, except this time the fbi is the crime family. as with all crime families, the head needs somebody someone is holier than thou. called behind his back, cardinal jim comey. the consiglieri andrew mccabe, violating any statute that got in his way. and his button man, peter strzok. they are getting off in their fight to save the country from donald trump. sounds far-fetched, doesn't it. it's not. there is a core group of arrogant, corrupt, lawless individuals who felt they and not we should decide a presidential election, and when they had failed they conspired to create the false narrative to not just muddy tour choice for president but to bring down his presidency a

christopher steel for superious information, he never paid it. what is he doing with that dirt digging firm, and a dossier linked to kremlin. liz: that dossier was paid for by the clinton campaign. that since been debunched. so now, the congress is getting his text-messages how far back will they go? there are anti-trump text-messages from peter schrok and woman thought to be his lover within the fbi. >> who was also on the investigation team and let go. liz: could he have pro hillary clinton text-messages. >> i am told two sets of message, one from 2017, anti-trump, and on one 16 that e pro hillary, we know they have tried to conceal his firing for several months, we an only last week they agree for congress to interview peter schrok. all of this smells of a cover-up. the fbi is not looking very good here, it is looks like days of j edgar hoover than the days of elliottness. liz: thness. liz: the question is did fbi protect hillary clinton. >> this. >> we need to look. >> good to see you come back soon. liz: this story, "wall street journal" rep

. >> he has a meeting during the election with christopher steele, the same guy that the democrats from fusion paid to do the discredited trump dossier and bruce orr's wife works for gps. and orr meets with fusion after the election. how do you explain that conduct. >> mccabe was pressed on the dossier today in a long session. after facing seven hours of questioning by the house intelligence committee on tuesday where he could not recall when he learned that the clinton campaign and the dnc paid for the dossier leading senator rand paul to tweet today, time to investigate high-ranking obama officials. this could be worse than watergate. democrats insisted this is a diversion from the real issue. >> which was the russian attempt to subvert the last election, the possible collusion -- well the certain collusion by many members of the trump campaign. >> other democrats claim this is an attempt to fire mueller over the holidays. a charge the president and the legal team consistently denied. >> ed, thanks. >>> congress tonight averting just moments ago a government shutdown. the house before

did the fbi pay christopher steele for the dossier? what did strzok do in terms of using that for potential surveillance. we asked these guys questions and if they don't provide answer, while hold them in contempt of congress. david: we have seen attempt of congress applied to members of the justice department before and nothing happened. i'm wondering whether a spec special counsel is in order. the problem we all know is their purview becomes as large as the universe and sometimes it's hard to hone them down. but do you think a second special counsel focusing on what russia was doing with fusion gps, what fusion gps was doing with the democrats and members of the justice department? >> it's hard to rein it in if you don't make any attempt to do it. when rosen tine appointed mueller he didn't even -- he didn't identify a crime to investigate. i think you can do a special counsel if you identify concrete offenses that may have been committed and keep it laser focused on that. i don't want sprawling special counsels even her to things i

steele. now the creator of the clinton bought and paid for fake news, anti-trump dossier and for a meeting with fusion gps cofounder glenn simpson. we have all of the details, also fbi director christopher wray is grilled by lawmakers. wait till you see the epic showdown on capitol hill over the trump hating peter strzok

steele before a british spy. it's a lot to digest. all of this comes as chris wray was grilled by congress this afternoon. take a look at part of that. >> i ask you again, surely you've examined the definition and the distinction between extreme carelessness and gross negligence. are you really going to tell us that you don't have an opinion on that distinction? >> gross negligence is the language and the statute, but i believe also been anybody who grabs a thesaurus would say gross negligence and extreme the careless are pretty close to each other. >> tucker: congressman steve king joins us. before i ask you about your hearing today, this news that aaron sibley who was working with former director mueller. once was the personal lawyer of hillary clinton's i.t. guy. why would he hire an obvious partisan for a job like this? >> if this whole thing screams conflict of interest along the way. the whole thing was asked of director wray. he has a tight rope he needs to walk. the question was essentially, did you have

what we're talking about is what other facts were out there that both christopher steele was able to find and the fbi was able to find independently. this from papadopoulos is one strain. another strain is going to be conversations that were apparently intercepted between the russian ambassador to the united states and that trump officials, and another of course was the reaction of the trump team to the wikileaks and of course we have the social media connection between a firm that was engaged buy jared kushner. there's lots of stairains here. the compelling information is not the dossier but what the fbi has independently confirmed and been able to obtain. >> we can't forget the don junior e-mail exchange and the person from russia trying to set up the lawyer meeting at trump tower last june. i want to turn to you, julia. the president said there was no collusion over and over. called the russian investigation a hoax. he has said it's based on this bogus dossier. based on this new report, does it change the ball game? >> it won't for him. i think you see a battle between two troops.

with glenn simpson and of course with christopher steele the one who planted the fake russian dossier it is absolutely incredible why the justice department is not putting a special prosecutor on robert mueller to investigate iranian one n. fusion g.p.s. is beyond all recognition i can't even imagine why that is not happening the only thing i can think of is maybe jeff sessions is compromised in some respects you know richard way in there i mean these are i mean it at the very least these are uncomfortable things that have been revealed that have been during the election in the transition here i mean the fact that you have a high ranking member of the f.b.i. his wife is working for a fusion g.p.s. i mean that is just. extraordinary i mean and we have and it took quite a bit of effort for congress to get this kind of the this information i mean they had to really put in they're still obstructing requests from congress here i mean don't we need a little bit more transparency at the f.b.i. about all this go ahead richard. peter do you assume your viewers know about alice in wonderland wh