mr. steele: it is a little bit complicated. in the sense that we don't really know what mueller knows where he is really going. i have said from the beginning that this was never about collusion. i don't even know what collusion is. i don't know what it looks like, how you do it, and that is the problem. not illegal. but other things are, and that was the moment that mueller's office said, we want to take a look at financial records, -- the thing about a good criminal enterprise is not the crime. it is how they pay for it. it is the money. it is always the money. that is the trail he seems to be on now. yesterday certainly, mr. bannon gave us a lot more fodder for that particular argument. i think in terms of what mueller does, if mueller comes out and says, i would not be surprised if robert mueller does not indict the president or find any criminal wrongdoing, i would not be surprised at all. but if he does, what it will do for the congress is put it back on its heels because then they have to make a very harsh political calc

mr. steele: it is a little bit complicated. in the sense that we don't really know what mueller knows where he is really going. i have said from the beginning that this was never about collusion. i don't even know what collusion is. i don't know what it looks like, how you do it, and that is the problem. not illegal. but other things are, and that was the moment that mueller's office said, we want to take a look at financial records, -- the thing about a good criminal enterprise is not the crime. it is how they pay for it. it is the money. it is always the money. it's always the money. and that's the trail that he seems to be on right now. yesterday certainly mr. bannon gave us a lot more fodder for that particular argument. i would not be surprised either mueller does not indict the president or find any criminal wrongdoing. i would not be surprised at all, but if he doesed at all. but if he does, what it will do for the congress is put it back on its heels because then they have to make a very harsh political calculation. do

mr. steele: i think they do. i have that hope because i am looking at a roomful of people that i have hope in, to be honest. it is literally that, "we the people," and if one of us falls down, we have to eager them -- we have to help them figure out to get up and keep walking. those are the crossroads we are at. that is really where we are. you either have some freaking compassion about someone or something, and then you act on that compassion or you are just going to be a stone. you're just going to move on and let it go, and i hope you do not do that. i really do. because this wonderful wacky experiment we call america still has meaning, still has value. yes, its past and history is ugly and tortured, painful, this, that, but it is also one of the most fundamentally important things that we have to offer the rest of the world. and they want us to offer it. i mean, i talk to diplomats and leaders from around the globe. these folks still look to us, and they still look to future generations of americans to help t

what would you say to mr. salter about mr. steele's integrity? >> i don't know mr. steele. all i can tell you is what i've seen in the classified file. mr. steele was on the payroll of fusion gps who was being paid by the democratic party to do opposition research on donald trump. while he was working with the fbi, he was shopping this dossier all over the world. that's not what an informant should do. i don't want lindsey graham to make these decisions, i want a special counsel to look at not only how mr. steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele, what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham investigation. i don't know all these things, but i can tell you somebody needs to look. if you believe robert mueller should be looking at the trump campaign, count me in. but if you ignore all this stuff, you're blind. >> mr. steele is

as we know now, mr. steele was hired by fusion g.p.s. to research mr. trump's alleged ties to russia. his work was funded by the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. now, remember, it took a subpoena and a court battle with the house intelligence committee to force that fact out into the open. lawyers for the democratic national committee and the bill clinton campaign officials denied it to the press for months. in other words, they lied. the founder of fusion g.p.s. denied that his firm was, quote-unquote, democratically linked. that, too, was untrue. when the news finally broke, "new york times" reporters actually complained that people who knew better had flat-out lied to them about who funded mr. steele's dossier. but back before the 2016 election, it is unclear who knew that steele was gathering dirt on trump for the democratic national committee and for the clinton campaign. many of his sources for claims about the trump campaign are russian government officials, so steele, who was working for fusion g.p.s., who in turn was work

what would you say to mr. salter about mr. steele's integrity? >> i don't know mr. steele. all i can tell you is what i've seen in the classified file. mr. steele was on the payroll of fusion gps who was being paid by the democratic party to do opposition research on donald trump. while he was working with the dossier all over the world. that's not what an informant should do. i don't want lindsey graham to make these decisions, i want a special counsel to look at not only how mr. steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele, what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham investigation. i don't know all these things, but i can tell you somebody needs to look. if you believe robert mueller should be looking at the trump campaign, count me in. but if you ignore all this stuff, you're blind. >> mr. steele is not an american citizen. >

mr. steele: it is a little bit complicated. in the sense that we don't miller knowshat where he is really going. i have said from the beginning that this was never about collusion. i don't even know what collusion is. i don't know what it looks like, how you do it, and that is the problem. not illegal. are, and thatgs was the moment that robert mueller's office said, we want to take a look at financial -- the thing about a good criminal enterprise is not the crime. it is how they pay for it. it is the money. it is always the money. that is the trail he seems to be on now. bannonay certainly, mr. gave us a lot more fodder for that particular argument. i think in terms of what mohler does, if robert mueller comes out and says, i would not be robert mueller does not indict the president or find any criminal wrongdoing, i would not be surprised at all. but if he but if he does, what it will do for the congress is put it back on its heels because then they have to make a very harsh political calculation. do they do like former u.s.

what would you say to mr. salter about mr. steele's integrity? >> i don't know mr. steele. all i can tell you is what i've seen in the classified file. mr. steele was on the payroll of fusion gps who was being paid by the democratic party to do opposition research on donald trump. while he was working with the fbi, he was shopping this dossier all over the world. that's not what an informant should do. i don't want lindsey graham to make these decisions, i want a special counsel to look at not only how mr. steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele, what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham but i can tell you somebody needs to look. if you believe robert mueller should be looking at the trump campaign, count me in. but if you ignore all this stuff, you're blind. >> mr. steele is not an american citizen. >> right. >> do you w

mr. steele cheered his at least partially. according to the reports he shared an with high-ranking officials in the justice department. in the course of our a few, senator graham and i came across some information that just does not add up. we saw him swearing one thing in a public libel suit against him in london england and then we saw contradictory things in documents that i'm not going to talk about in an open meeting and open setting. for the violation of the team uscw, 1,001. the. to ignore the facts or speculate wrongfully about senator graham's motivations or mine. the. in the course of my oversight work i have done so publicly. it's reminded us all recently lying to federal officials is a crime. it doesn't matter who is doing theul lying. we have said repeatedly we support the work of. to follow the facts wherever they lead, but that doesn't mean that i can ignore what looks like false statements if an individual's needs bu fees but t be evidence of a crime unless he or she should report that to law enforcement said i

they did meet with mr. steele and some of the things that he found they used as part of their investigation but it was not the basis of their own investigation. but, anderson, no word tonight on whether or not the justice department will move forward on its own investigation into mr. steele, who republicans for a long time have been going after as part of their own investigations, believing that hiss dossier was filled with what they believe are unsubstantiated charges. >> i mean, just to be clear, they're not alleging that anything in the dossier itself is false, is that right? >> that is correct. in fact, they make very clear in their letter that the refefl does not even talk about the veracity of the claims in the toss yay itself. it's strictly talking about whether or not he lied about his contacts with the news media about the dossier itself. now, anderson, christopher steele, it's important to remember, was hired by the firm fusion gps, that opposition research firm which was first paid for by republi

steele's research shocked us. mr. steele's sources in russia who were not paid reported on an extensive and now confirmed ef fofrt for the by the kremlin to help elect mr. trump president. mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. can you, peter baker, speak to how you might guess from covering this president, from covering this white house how you might guess the president is going to turn this into some sort of deep-state conspiracy when it's perfectly clear from this piece that when christopher steele, a former british intelligence officer thought there was something that required government intervention, government action, he did exactly what you're supposed to do? >> yeah. what you'll hear from president trump's defenders at the very least if not from the president himself is that this dossier was used somehow to get a warrant to investigate and spy on even the trump campaign last year. that was something you heard at some of these congressional hearings a few weeks

steele's research shocked us. mr. steele's sources in russia who were not paid reported on an extensive and now confirmed effort by the kremlin to help elect mr. trump president. mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. can you, peter baker, speak to how you might guess from covering this president, from covering this white house, how you might guess the president is going to turn this into some sort of deep-state conspiracy when it's perfectly clear from this piece that when christopher steele, a former british intelligence officer, thought there was something that required government intervention, government action, he did exactly what you're supposed to do? >> yeah. what you'll hear from president trump's defenders at the very least if not from the president himself is that this dossier was used somehow to get a warrant to investigate and spy on even the trump campaign last year. that was something you heard at some of these congressional hearings a few weeks back. a

as we know now, mr. steele was hired by fusion g.p.s. to research mr. trump's alleged ties to russia. his work was funded by the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. now, remember, it took a subpoena and a court battle with the house intelligence committee to force that fact out into the open. lawyers for the democratic national committee and the bill clinton campaign officials denied it to the press for months. in other words, they lied. the founder of fusion g.p.s. denied that his firm was, quote-unquote, democratically linked. that, too, was untrue. when the news finally broke, "new york times" reporters actually complained that people who knew better had flat-out lied to them about who funded mr. steele's dossier. but back before the 2016 election, it is unclear who knew that steele was gathering dirt on trump for the democratic national committee and for the clinton campaign. many of his sources for claims about the trump campaign are russian government officials, so steele, who was working for fusion g.p.s., who in turn was work

they did meet with mr. steele and some of the things that he found they used as part of their investigation but it was not the basis of their own investigation. but, anderson, no word tonight on whether or not the justice department will move forward on its own investigation into mr. steele, who republicans for a long time have been going after as part of their own investigations, believing that his dossier was filled with what they believe are unsubstantiated charges. >> i mean, just to be clear, they're not alleging that anything in the dossier itself is false, is that right? >> that is correct. in fact, they make very clear in their letter that it does not even talk about the veracity of the claims in the dossier itself. it's strictly talking about whether or not he lied about his contacts with the news media about the dossier itself. now, anderson, christopher steele, it's important to remember, was hired by the firm fusion gps, that opposition research firm which was first paid for by republicans durin

mr. steele saw this and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. we did not discussi the decisio instead we deferred to mr. steel, a professional with a long history, we did not speak to the fbi and we haven't since. quote, after the election mr. steele decided to share his intelligence with senator john mccain via an emissary. we're extremely proud of our work to highlight mr. trump's russia ties is our right under the first amendment. the public still has much to learn about a man with the most troubling business past. trump should release transcripts so the american public can learn the truth about our work and most importantly, what happened to our democracy. again, coming tonight from the two founders of fusion gps say they have given republican-led committees in congress information on trump's relationship with the bank, business dealings with the organization that raised questions about money laundering and did not want the dossier published. they say the russian sources for christopher steele and dossier were not paid. they say they didn't

after the election, mr. steele decided to share his intelligence with senator john mccain. we helped him do that. the goal was to alert the u.s. national security community to an attack on our country by a hostile foreign power. we did not, however, share the dossier with buzzfeed, which, to our dismay, published last january. we're extremely proud of our work to highlight mr. trump's russia times. to have done so is our right under the first amendment. the public still has much to learn within a man with the most troubling business past of any u.s. president. congress should release transcripts of our firm's testimony so that the american people can learn the truth about our work and most importantly, what happened to our democracy." again, this is coming tonight from the two founders of fusion gps. they say they have given these republican-led committees in congress information on trump's relationship with deutsche bank, on business dealings by the trump organization that raised questions about money laundering. they said they did not want the dossier published. they said

steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr, whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham investigation. i don't know all these things, but i can tell you somebody needs to look. if you believe robert mueller should be looking at the trump campaign, count me in. but if you ignore all this stuff, you're blind. >> matt, what does it say to you or how do you feel about it when you hear lindsey graham saying that, knowing that he heard the exact same testimony diane fine sign did? that he knew what was in these transcripts? yet he still demonize -- is still demonizing mr. steele, demonizing fusion gps, and he knew better. >> one of the things that's most stark when you read this transcript is the behavior of christopher steele versus that of lindsey graham, chuck grassley, and everyone in the trump orbit. christoph

also i don't know mr. simpson, and i don't mr. steele. they may be perfectly credible. they also might be a couple of whack jobs. i don't know. i'm going to depend on the fbi and the department of justice to sort all of this out. and i think eventually they will. and once they do, i hope they will make it an exception to their normal procedure and actually report the facts that they have found to the american people. >> does it impress you at all, and again you said, you know, few people know steele directly or simpson directly. according to simpson's testimony, steele went to the fbi out of his own volition out of concern then candidate trump may have been blackmailed. does that impress you about steele at all or undercuts the narrative steele motivations were political in nature? >> well, i don't know if it's true. i'm not saying it's not. mr. simpson may be telling the truth, and he may also be trying to cover his own rear end. he has an opinion here. >> he's testifying under oath here. >> i understand. people have been known to lie under oath around here as well, as

does this represent the entire universe of memos mr. steele created? to the best of my knowledge as part of this engagement, this is it. he didn't say these are all the christopher steele memos about russia, period, full stop. these are all the memos he created for us as part of this particular engagement. is there another engagement? might there be more trump russia memos other than what we saw in the dossier? that little exchange, halfway through and barely noticed in the glen simpson transcript lines up with a piece of reporting from the "new york times." if you look, not kidding, 26 paragraphs down. profile of glen simpson from earlier this week, this nugget, quote, the work has not stopped. fusion continues to look into ties between mr. trump and russia, according to several people briefed on the research. specific areas of focus and information about current ben factors, who is paying for the work, closely guarded. work still not stopped, still investigating trump and russia. publication of the original memos by buzzfeed, happened a year ago toni

steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr, whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele what involvement did he have in the dossier, and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump for clinton to the point that it was a sham investigation. contrast that with donald trump jr. who saw the russians want to interfere with the selection and said, i love it. jared kushner, who got an e-mail saying the same thing, and went to a meeting. contrast that with lindsey graham and chuck grassley, who see christopher steele tried to blow the whistle, and refer him for criminal charges, try to have him prosecuted and sent to jail. it really is i would say a shameful moment for those two members of the 93. >> well said. matt miller, frank piglusi, thank you both. >>> for more on russian efforts to block the dossier testimony from being released, msnbc contributor jennifer rubin, conservative columnist for "the washington post." and evan mcmullin, independent p

we hired mr. steele and gave him no marching orders beyond this basic question. why did mr. trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious instate. mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. congressman, we know fusion gps has expressed frustration that their testimony before congress has not been made public. by calling on this investigation now into steele, do you have reason to believe republicans are trying to present the testimony from being released? >> well, there's some testimony that can be or cannot be released, depending on whether it was classified. i don't recall anything about their testimony that should be kept classified. i more than welcome it. i like to see more public hearings take place here. i think if we're really trying to find the truth about exactly what took place and indeed if the president wants to be exonerated, the first thing he can do is release this testimony and tell his people to start cooperating and to tell the house and senate investigations to stop

referred christopher steele in the f.b.i. and recommended criminal charges, even though mr. steele was a whistle-blower, someone that our chairman of judiciary has always protected. he came to the f.b.i. with concerns that donald trump was subject to blackmail. any american would worry about that. the chairman took that action unilaterally. that is, asking for criminal charges without consulting with or providing notice to the minority. yet still expressed outrage at the ranking member of his committee released the transcript of his committe comm. there's a fundamental double standard here. you can't complain, mr. chairman, of judiciary, about our side doing things unilaterally if you do them unilaterally. we want to work in a bipartisan way. so i applaud my friend, the senior senator from california, for releasing that transcript. it contained information that was crucial for the american people to read and understand in order to judge for themselves the allegations my friends across the aisle have made. you make a serious allegation from someone but say no one can see the

mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. anything you've heard before today's referral of criminal referral of -- to bring criminal charges that suggested that there was any criminal conduct on the part of mr. steele? anything you picked up in all your conversations with law enforcement and intel sources before today? >> no. to the contrary. christopher steele is a known quantity to the american intelligence and law enforcement community. he was a russia expert and former british intelligence officer who helped the fbi investigate corruption in international soccer. the fbi was prepared to pay him as part of the russia investigation. those talks broke down. and it's true that the dossier was not the trigger for the fbi's counterintelligence investigation. but the fbi has always taken steele and his material very seriously, nicolle. >> okay. i held up my finger because i want to get one to the panel. and you stay with us, too. i spoke to, at the time that the dossier started to be something that, obviously, triggered donald t

is that what we were just discussing as the series of memos by buzzfeed and created by mr. steele? >> yes. >> does what does represent between june and october 2016? >> these are the memos that he created the engagement. to the best of my knowledge, as part of this engagement, this is it. is there another engagement? might there be more trump russia memos other than what we saw in the dossier? that lines up with a little piece of reporting in the know, this week. and if you look 26 paragraphs down, i'm not kiting, in little traeki traeking mr. simpson's specific area of focus and information about any current benefactors, that information is closely guarded. the work has not stopped. fusion gps is still now secretarying trump and russia. the publication of the original memos by buzz fooed, which -- you you know what, that night was the start of a whole new odyssey for buzz feed itself. since it's been fending of lawsuits of all kinds from all ieds. >> but editor in chief says he is proud of the dossier. that's next. t i don't need luck, i have skills... i don't have my keys. (on in

. >> a group that produced the dossier did mr. orr interact with mr. steele. during the time that mr. steele was being informant for the fbi, we now know he was shopping the dossier to out journalist outlets all over the world. >> has the investigation already gone far enough? should it come to an end as far as possible collusion with the russians >> where is the evidence of the collusion? what we're talking about with the dossier and stuff, that informs why there hasn't been evidence of collusion potentially. if in fact, the fbi took this dossier, which is an opposition research project funded by the democrats and hillary clinton. if they dressed up as an intelligence document and submitted to the fisa court to get surveillance and keep this intelligence investigation going, whether maybe that was the impetus for that. if that's the case and it's all based off this discredited dossier, this whole russia collusion narrative -- >> would you be concerned about him sitting down with an interview with robert mueller? >> if they don't have the goods on collusion, j

yes, we hired mr. steel, but we said without informing him who we were working for. why did he seek to do deals in a corrupt police state. what came back shocked us. mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. it also says we don't believe the steele dossier was the trigger for the investigation into russian meddling. our sources said the dossier was taken seriously because it corroborated reports they received including one inside the trump camp. the founders of fusion gps back with the panel. joining us is jeffrey toobin. >> i think this is the defense they have put out before. i think what's news in this op ed piece is the idea that one person, a person in the trump campaign who was cooperating or talking to the fbi at this very early stage. >> right. sources said the dossier was taken seriously by the fbi because it corroborated reports the bureau received from other sources including one inside the trump camp. >> i'm certainly unaware of who inside the trump camp was dealing with the fbi. but certainly i think we all

[applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] mr. steele: thank you. have a very good year. be disruptive, not destructive. all right, thanks. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> c-span's washington journal, live every day, with news and policy issues that impact you. coming up friday morning, we talk about the prospects for entitlement reform, which includes medicare, medicaid, welfare programs. the guest will join us. then, a roundtable -- a roundtable on entitlement reform to guests. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern friday morning. join the discussions. >> next, we are in richmond, where the virginia board of selections determines the winner of one of the states have -- house seats, the 94th district. the election ended in a tie after a recount and court ruling. 1705, theseished in were decided by taking a name at random. >> good morning, everybody. please come back, we sure enjoyed the attention. a

steele and gave him no specific marching ords beyond this basic question. why did mr. trump repeatedly seek to do deals in a notoriously corrupt police state that most serious investors shun? >> so michael moore, fusion gps expressing frustration that their testimony before congress hasn't been made public. by calling for an investigation into steele could they prevent fusion testimony from being released? >> i think the people from fusion gps can now say it as they want to say and whether or not the testimony comes out they have to debate. this is pure destraks by lindsey graham and others. you mentioned we have a ball game in atlanta coming up. this is like the referees on the field trying to debate what the players had for lunch as opposed to what's happening on the ball field. they're trying to distract us from what went on. remember the dossier, we talk about this and republicans seem to like to forget it, the dossier came into existence well before we were talking about hillary clinton's people or the democrats paying for it. this thing came to light with some re

i also don't know mr. simpson and i don't know mr. steele. they may be perfectly credible. they also may be a couple of whack jobs. i don't know. >> right. >> i'm going to depend on the fbi and the department of justice to sort all of this out. i think eventually they will and once they do, i hope they will make an exception to their normal procedure and actually report the facts that they have found to the american people. >> does it impress you at all -- and again, you said few people know steele directly or simpson directly. according to simpson's testimony, steele went to the fbi on his own volition out of concern that candidate trump may have been blackmailed. does that impress you about steele at all and do you think it undercuts any of the narrative that steele's motivations were just political in nature? >> well, i don't know if it's true. i'm not saying it's not. mr. simpson may be telling the truth. he also may be trying to cover his own rearend. i just don't know. he has an opinion here. i don't know -- >> he's testifying under oath here. >> i understand. people

if he interacted with mr. steel. that is wrong. if you're not worried about mr. straw being in charge of clinton e-mail investigation given his attitude towards the clinton and trump and what he said, i think you're blind to the fact this whole investigation needs to be looked at independently. >> so according to new reports, the justice department has reignited a probe into the clinton foundation the month long investigation which was first reported by the hill is set to be looking into whether any clinton foundation owners received favorable treatment during hillary clinton's time as secretary of state. according to "washington post" in 2015, the justice department had temporarily suspended the investigation amid tensions of the fbi department and agents about the politically charged case according to people familiar with the matter. last month, christopher ray told congress he would not let outside forces including president trump influence investigations. >> there isn't a person on this plant that can get me to drop a properly predicated investigation or star

in terms of what chris steele found out, what came back shocked us. mr. steele's sources in russia, who were not paid. we did not know that. who were not paid report odd an extensive and now confirmed effort by the kremlin to help elect mr. trump president. mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. yes, chris officer steele was a hired hand who then reported what he found to the fbi. this is all really helpful information, john. >> it is is vitally important as well. take a look at those sentences. if they don't give you chills, you are being a partisan. >> it's a witch-hunt. >> some things have been proven. some things have is not. some things have been discredited. we should see that testimony. let's release the testimony. and look at it all. this is about our country. it is about our election. it will resonate enormously today. >> you have to look at how they rebut. it is is one thing to say, yeah, he didn't pay his sources in russia, but he was getting played by people who wanted to be opportunistic. may

question, and why did you engage mr. steele in may or june of 2016? >> answer, we had done an enormous amount of work on trump generally at this point in the project and we began to drill down on specific areas. steele is not the only subcontractor we engaged. other parts of the world required other people. we were, for example, interested the trump family was selling merchandise in the u.s. made in sweatshops in asia and south america so we needed somebody else for that. there were other things. we were not totally focused on russia at the time. we did reading and research. we were drilling down on specific areas. scotland was another one. what happens when you get to this point in an investigation when you gathered all of the public record information and began to exhaust the open source material, you tend to find specialists that can take you further into a subject. i had known christopher steele since i left the wall street journal. he was an extremely well-regarded investigator. that is broadly why i asked him to see what he could find out about

steele's investigation and fusion gps' investigation, they came across a number of issues regarding mr. trump's past that raised concerns about his business record, even raising concerns about potential money laundering and work with the -- what these leaders of fusion gps said was work with dubious russian officials over the years. these are issues that the people who are charge of this group, fusion gps, raised to three congressional committees when they met behind closed doors. they said look into the trump organization's finances to determine whether or not there was any money laundering or any other elicit business activity that occurred with russian officials. now earlier today, wolf, i had a chance to talk to mike warner, the vice chairman of the committee and i asked him is this a matter for your committee to look at? he suggested perhaps this is better suited to special counsel robert mueller. here is what he said. >> you saw the fusion gps op-ed. they're saying that these finances, the trump organization finances, should be investigated by the committee. is that something you

question, and why did you engage mr. steele in may or june of 2016? >> answer, we had done an enormous amount of work on trump and began to drill down on specific areas. steele is not the only subcontract engaged. the trump family was selling merchandise in the u.s. made in sweatshops in asia and south america so we needed somebody else for that. there were other things. we were not totally focused on russia at the time. we did reading and research. scotland was another one. what happens when you get to this point in an investigation when you gathered all of the public record information and began to exhaust the open source material, you find specialist that can take you further into a subject. i had known christopher steele since i left the wall street journal. he was an extremely well-regarded investigator. that is broadly why i asked him to see what he could find out about donald trump's business activities in russia. question, steele. did something in particular point to that? answer, the basis for the request he made a number of trips to russia a

steele used, the tradecraft. i can tell you, i served in moscow for five years, mr. steele didn't even visit moscow. and so, there's a question about whether the fsb would have been aware that he was collecting that information, and then what they regularly do if they're trying to conduct covert influence operations is to feed information so that maybe 90%-95% of the information is true, and 5% of it is not, and it's designed to serve their covert influence. >> so, you're bringing up the dossier, hoffman, and you have two republican members of the senate judiciary committee, both senator lindsey graham along with charles grassley of iowa, following this referral, asking the justice department to charge former british intelligence officer christopher steele, claiming he may have misled the fbi. so, a couple questions here. do you believe this dossier is accurate or do you think that there are questions, as you just mentioned, into what the dossier has? >> yeah, i mean, i think there's a lot of questions about the accuracy -- >> and also the collection of intelligence

mr. steele saw this as a crime in progress and decided he needed to report it to the fbi. jeffrey, can republicans now credibly continue this argument that the dossier is bogus and that this whole investigation is a witch hunt? >> sure, because they have a whole network that does nothing but say this all day long. fox news is going to continue to say it and they're not going to get into these facts. one of the big differences between this media moment and earlier scandals is that there is an entire television devoted to defending the administration. so none of this stuff is going to make any difference to them. but, remember, the president's support is only, you know, 35% or so. and fox news, while certainly significant, is -- doesn't reach most americans. you know, but can people say that this is still a witch hunt? of course they can still say it. it's not true, but they'll say. >> david, will they change course? >> well, i certainly agree that most die-hard fans of president trump aren't going to change course in their feelings about him. and jeffrey's right. fox news,

steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the dossier, whether mr. orr, whose wife worked for fusion gps alongside mr. steele, what involvement did he have in the dossier? i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e-mail investigation had a political bias against trump. >> so this idea, mike, of a second special counsel, is that gaining any traction. >> well, i think if we can trace this back to december 1st, which is turning out to be at least politically and in terms of what the congressional investigators are looking at a real turning point in how they proceeded. that is when michael flynn, the former national security adviser, pled guilty and that he was cooperating with robert mueller. and now a much more concerted effort by republicans to push back on two fronts. on the one hand, we see republicans saying, listen, we've done dozens of interviews, reviewed thousands of documents, spent hours looking at this and so far we're not finding a whole lot. they're planning to release their own probe very soon. secondly what we saw linds

there were questions they wanted to learn about exactly what happened and what mr. steele found, according to the transcript, was so alarming he had to inform the fbi. the 312-page transcript includes new revelations about the infamous opposition research dossier on donald trump and the russians. glen simpson, the co-founder of the opposition research firm fusion gps told the senate judiciary committee that a former british agent who compiled the dossier was so concerned about what he found that he decided to brief the fbi in the summer of 2016. the agent, christopher steele, worried about a security issue about whether a presidential candidate was being blackmailed. according to simpson's transcript. he also testified that steele told him the fbi had similar intelligence from an internal trump campaign source. and that the fbi believed chris' information might be credible because they had other intelligence that indicated the same thing. and one of those pieces of intelligence was a human source from inside the trump organization. a person close to simpson clarifie

in fact, what mr. steele appears to have been referring to was an australian ambassador who had passed along information to the fbi after having discussions about russia and trump potential connections with that trump foreign policy adviser george papadopoulos who, as we know, pleaded guilty late last year to lying to the fbi about these russian contacts. now, according to this testimony from glen simpson, he goes really into length to defend christopher steele saying he was hired as expert to understand exactly what happened during candidate trump's past, why he took trips to russia, why he had connections with russia. and that's how steele came across what he believed was rather concerning information. now, brooke, republicans are very, very angry about this, particularly the republican chairman of the committee. because they thought this was done behind closed doors, in private as part of larger investigation. but grassley reported a statement saying they were con founded by feinstein to put out thi

. >> i a special council to look at not only how mr. steele conducted himself, what the fbi did with the report and i want to find out if the lead investigator of the clinton e- mail investigation had a bias against trump for clinton to the point it was a sham investigation. >> if they are investigating hillary clinton it does not take a genious to see why? they are badgered by the white house to do it. >> reporter: privately special council, mueller, continues his investigation into the collusion between russia and the trump campaign and if it lead to any obstruction of justice. in washington, back to you. >>> as the northeast digs out from the first blizzard of 2018 travelers at the airport are steaming, dealing with long lines to rebook their flights. their travel nightmare was compounded by lost luggage and scarce information. many were stuck on their plane three to five hours. some people had no food or water. the storm created backlog of flights. portable stair case his to come in to get people off of planes and buses to take them

. >> they referred mr. steele to the department of justice for a criminal investigation. how likely do you think it is going to happen? by the way, do you think we need second special counsel to look at lisa page and mr. orr? >> let's start with the last part first. i don't think we need another special counsel. i think that's what we have a justice department for. i don't see any reason why they couldn't investigate that. as far as the likelihood of whether this referral goes anyplace, it's very hard to tell you because they gave us a short public cover letter that's over a classified memo. we don't know exactly what's in the classified memo. but reading the tea leaves, it appears what they're saying is something in the communications between steele and the journalists he spoke to, and we know he did that starting in september 2016 at the height of the presidential election, was inconsistent with whatever it is that he was telling the fbi. and i think that's the problem he has. but we're a long way from making a criminal case as far as that goes. >> andrew c. mccarthy, e

steel? the one that helped generate and shepherd through the fake dossier that could lead to the opening of this entire investigation. >> i want to see what they wrote i want to see what comes of thi this. they are wanting to have a criminal referral for the sky, the author of the dossier who is being paid by the clinton campaign, it's reported he is being reimbursed by the fbi at the same time. we don't know if that's true, i think this is critical as are a host of questions. think about us -- why did the justice department released some of the text messages? normally they say ongoing investigation, we're not going to release any information public. why only 375 text messages? was the other 96%? >> laura: the others might be related to having a romantic dinner. >> why did they release any of them, and if so why did they pick the 375 come out do we see the others? why did lisa page leave the molar mueller team -- there's a host of questions we need to get answers to. >> laura: clinton founda

mr. steel? >> thank you, dr. matthews. one correction. it's number 13. 181-9, three figures need to be corrected. agreement between sfusd and sap success factors for software, support services in an amount not to exceed $5,040,000 should read $5,504,000. budgeting and planning for software and support in an amount not to exceed $329,935 should read $329,935.62. the total for the entire capital budget management package, $11,623, 292.60. it should be $12,087,292.62. thank you. >> vice-president mendoza-mcdonnell: any items removed for first reading by the board? seeing none. any items severed by the board or superintendent for discussion and vote tonight? seeing none. roll call on consent calendar. [roll call] slooirn >> vice-president mendoza-mcdonnell: yes, except for k7. [roll call] >> vice-president mendoza-mcdonnell: section d, no severed items. commissioner sanchez, do you have a -- >> commissioner sanchez: i will read out -- it captures all of the votes that were proposed for adoption as well as some of the items, where they will go