[Tapper:] We're back with our panel. Sticking with politics, after 16 hours of being grilled by three different House committees, the big question: did FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe confirm that he had been told at the time about conversations President Trump denies ever happened? Sources tell CNN that McCabe confirmed to House members that former FBI Director James Comey told him about conversations the president had with him. Does that include the president asking Comey to lay off his investigation into Michael Flynn? Does it include the president asking Comey to pledge his loyalty, a conversation the two men have very different recollections of?
[James Comey, Former Fbi Director:] He asked specifically of loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. My common sense told me what's going on here is that he's looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job.
[Donald Trump, President Of The United States:] I don't know how that got there because I didn't ask that question. I hardly know the man. I'm not going to say I want you to pledge allegiance. Who would do that?
[Tapper:] I want to bring in CNN's senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju. And, Manu, so just to be clear here, we don't know what conversations Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director, confirmed to the House that Comey told him about, but it could be those significant ones.
[Manu Raju, Cnn Senior Congressional Reporter:] Yes, I mean, he apparently was told the House Intelligence Committee that after all of the times that James Comey had a conversation with President Trump, he later told Andy McCabe about, including that pledge for loyalty. So, this is his sworn testimony, that at the time of these conversations, soon after Comey did tell him about these conversations. Now, why that's significant, of course, is that clip that you just showed, the fact that the president has denied this. The fact that we know the special counsel is, in fact, investigating the circumstances around the Comey firing, including questions about whether any there was any obstruction of justice. So, presumably, McCabe could be a witness to corroborate corroborate exactly what happened. Now, Comey did say before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he briefed his full leadership team at the FBI and he didn't say McCabe. Now we know that it is McCabe. Presumably there are some others as well and presumably they'll also give their accounts of what happened to Mueller or congressional investigators.
[Tapper:] And the House Intelligence Committee, they've interviewed some big players this week, including the president's former associate of three decades. What do we know about that?
[Raju:] Well, Rhona Graff, she's been a longtime associate, personal assistant of the president at the Trump Organization, works in Trump Tower. We do know that the House Intelligence Committee has been interested in her because she has served as a gatekeeper of sorts. She's someone who presumably knew about contacts that may or may not have occurred with either Russian officials or people within the Trump organization. And we do know that in that e-mail exchange between Rob Goldstone, that British publicist who set up the meeting with Donald Trump Jr., June of 2016, Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort attended where he was promised dirt on the Clinton campaign, that she was mentioned in that e-mail exchange from Rob Goldstone to Donald Trump Jr. saying that, well, I can go straight to your father, I can fill him in on this information by talking to Rhona Graff. So, the questions that the investigators are going to ask, undoubtedly is that did the president know about the meeting at Trump Tower? Now, we don't have a full sense of what happened yet. That happened today off-site in New York. This is mainly interviewed by staff of the House Intelligence Committee. And actually that has caused some concerns among Democrats on the committee, because they wanted her to come to Washington and to interview her personally, but the Republicans wanted to get this done at the end of this week. That's why they went up to New York. Staff members mainly interviewing her today, Jake.
[Tapper:] More to come on that interview. Manu Raju, thank you so much. Don't go anywhere. We've got a lot going on. Strong and insulting words about the United States from Russian President Vladimir Putin. This is, of course, the same Putin who reportedly had a friendly phone call with the president just last week. Stay with us.