New Claims of Trump Campaign Cover Up; Climate of Fear Grips Kabul
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles. Ahead this hour:</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Many moving parts in the Russia investigation including new claims of a Trump administration cover up.</s>VAUSE: Opening ceremonies at the Olympic Village now under way. The Winter Games just opened --</s>SESAY: Actress Angelina Jolie rallies for the Rohingya refugees -- her powerful message to</s>NATO. VAUSE: Hello -- everybody. Welcome to our viewers all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause.</s>SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay. NEWSROOM L.A. starts right now.</s>VAUSE: We begin with troubling new claims by the top Democrat on the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. Adam Schiff accuses Republican Chairman Devin Nunes of changing a memo of alleged FBI abuses before he sent it to the White House. President Trump is expected to make the memo public but a rare public statement from the FBI has expressed grave concerns about the memo's accuracy.</s>SESAY: Also developing, the "New York Times" reports a former legal spokesman for the Trump Team was concerned that White House communications director Hope Hicks may have considered obstructing justice. Hicks allegedly told the President that Donald Trump, Jr.'s e-mails about his meeting with a Russian lawyer quote, "will never get out". Hicks' attorney denies she ever said that.</s>VAUSE: Juliette Kayyem is a CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. She joins us now from Cambridge, Massachusetts. So Juliette -- good to see you. It seems that the FBI and the Department of Justice are on this collision course right now with the White House, with the President who campaigned as a law and order candidate because he is ready to release this information which the man he chose as director of the FBI says is misleading, reckless and could reveal classified information. So how did we get to this point?</s>JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: We got to this point because in no small part due to Devin Nunes who has sort of asserted himself, the congressman who is the chair of the Republican -- I mean of the House Intelligence Committee who claims that this memo that's been the subject of attention for several weeks now exposes some sort of bad behavior by the FBI and it's absolutely necessary for him to get out. The FBI and, of course, the Department of Justice know this not to be true, know that he has hand-picked certain information and wrote what can only be described as a line in the sand to the White House that if they actually did release this memo that it would cause grave harm to America security. And just to remind people this is Director Wray who was appointed by Donald Trump. This is no longer one of these hold-over games that the White House tends to play.</s>VAUSE: You know, he made this argument that it seems almost as if Nunes is what, working for the Russians?</s>KAYYEM: You know, at this stage people say, you know, why is this happening. I think without sounding too conspiratorial, it's very difficult to know what's animating Devin Nunes but some, you know, either because he is being told by the White House to do this or because there's something compromising his good judgment. I mean he looks not only very silly but of course, he's now being undermined by the very FBI and law enforcement agencies that he has been voted into office to protect and defend and to give him the resource the need. I think also it's just worth noting there's so much noise at this stage it's hard to take a step back but at some stage I think we have to ask ourselves the White House trying so hard to cover up or to stop this investigation from going on that, you know, what is it that's underlying their fear? At this stage it's no longer about obstruction of justice. Something is compelling the White House every day to launch an attack against Mueller, against the FBI, against leadership in the FBI, against the Department of Justice, against their own attorneys at the White House counsel's office. You know maybe it's so in plain sight we're afraid to see it but it's hard to imagine that they're doing this because everything is benign at this stage.</s>VAUSE: You know, as the President was leaving the State of the Union he was asked on the way out if he would release the memo. That answer was caught on a hot mike. Listen to this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's release the memo.</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Don't worry -- 100 percent.</s>VAUSE: But now it seems maybe the President hasn't even read the memo.</s>KAYYEM: Yes.</s>VAUSE: Here's White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Has the President seen the memo yet?</s>SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Not that I'm aware of. I know he hadn't as of last night prior to and immediately after the State of the Union.</s>VAUSE: You know, a very -- it seemed a very honest answer there from Sarah Sanders. Again though, it seems that there is just this determination to put this out there regardless of the consequences.</s>KAYYEM: Regardless of the consequences which we know what they are. The FBI saying that this is going to, you know, this is going to expose sources and methods of the FBI, our preeminent law enforcement agency. But it's also being done when everyone knows it's not accurate. I mean this has to be said every time we talk about the Nunes memo. He had taken particular pieces of information, shut out others and created some narrative that we are now supposed to believe simply because he says he -- you know this comes from important information. Nunes has no sort of validity I think now in terms of what's animating him whether it's pure politics or something else. And so there's more than one reason not to release the memo. And I hope that when it is or isn't, you know -- when it is or if it is released people will understand it is factually, as the FBI said, factually inaccurate. It is just a lie. And that is what this debate is about.</s>VAUSE: You know, on Tuesday, you know, before the State of the Union there was a lunch with the President and reporters. Republican Speaker Paul Ryan was there. He said this about the memo and the FBI. "Let it all out. Get it all out there. Cleanse the organization. I think we should disclose all this stuff. It's the best disinfectant." You know, there was a time when many Republicans like Ryan, they sort of stayed away from, you know, the President's unfounded allegations, the conspiracy theories they heard, you know, on Fox News. But clearly not now and particularly that word "cleanse the organization".</s>KAYYEM: It's the word purge. It's the Stalinist type word to suggest that the FBI which, you know, is not like a liberal institution, right, that the FBI somehow has it out for Trump. But I think what you see with Ryan and many others is that once you go down the path of defending the White House given -- and we don't know what it is -- where that path is taking us, right, in terms of this investigation. It's very hard to step away and so what you're seeing is that any number of these, congressman Paul Ryan in particular, but you know, beginning with, ok I'm going to not talk about Trump/Russia slowly but surely getting sort of hooked in. And I think you know, for others who have not gone down that path it's worth noting that they don't even know what they're defending at this stage because we have no idea what is underlying Mueller's investigation, let alone what's underlying this clear evidence of obstruction of justice from Trump, the White House and now the story today that the "New York Times" is reporting that Hope Hicks, his communications director. You know it's a path -- it's a -- it's a silly path. It's a scary path for people to go down because who knows what shoe was going to drop at this stage.</s>VAUSE: You know, it seems that there's this 30 percent of the country which is you know locked on to Donald Trump and the administration no matter what. If you can convince that 30 percent that law enforcement is bias, take that one step further because then you get to the point where eve if Robert Mueller, the special investigator comes up with solid hard proof that the President has done -- is guilty of some wrong doing it seems unlikely that percent of the country is going to believe it's true.</s>KAYYEM: I think that's right. I think in some ways that 30 percent is just locked in. But the significance of what Mueller is doing is not necessarily that he's going to get an indictment against Donald Trump. There may be others in the family or others in the White House. I think also what it will do, at least, it will be a political statement about what may have occurred either between -- either during the 2016 election or as many people suspect and certainly our reporting at CNN has shown that there might have been financial underpinnings between -- or financial propping by the Russians to support the Trump Organization that the Trump family wanted to hide during the campaign and after. So, you know, in some ways even if Mueller doesn't come up with a leg solution it will be a document that will be used in the public debate to discuss you know essentially, you know, what animated the Russians to do what they did in 2016 and what's animating Trump -- and I say it again -- the Trump family from trying so hard to keep whatever that truth is from all of us. And that's where I think that this is going down. I tend to be the calm one on air with you guys as a</s>VAUSE: You know, it seems like Trump years are like dog years. Every one -- every year lasts seven.</s>KAYYEM: At least it's February. At least it's February now and we got through one month.</s>VAUSE: Thanks -- Juliette. Good to see you -- appreciate it.</s>KAYYEM: Thank you.</s>VAUSE: Jessica Levinson is a professor of law and governance at Loyola law school and Peter Matthews is a professor of political science at Cyprus College. They're here to talk more about the -- today in Russia news. Ok. Here's the key part of that statement from the FBI. "We have grave concerns about material admissions of facts that fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy." Jessica -- this would appear to be a last ditch effort to try and stop the President from releasing the memo which is very rare. If this doesn't work, how long will it be before, you know, Director Wray is the second FBI director to be fired by Donald Trump?</s>JESSICA LEVINSON, LOYOLA LAW SCHOOL: Well, you know, potentially not that long if we just look at history and we look at his pattern of firing people and his pattern of firing people who speak out against him. I just want to pick up on one thing that you discussed with past --</s>VAUSE: With Juliette -- yes.</s>LEVINSON: -- with Juliette where Speaker Paul Ryan said, you know, let's just let all this information out and let's -- you picked up from the word -- let's cleanse the organization. But I actually picked up on a different word which is that basically disclosure and sunlight is the best disinfectant. That's almost word for word putting a really famous passage from a Supreme Court opinion that Justice Brandeis wrote. And I think that Speaker Ryan may -- it maybe someone who was a law student or a former lawyer just wrote that but I think he may be trying to telegraph something to the judiciary of saying this information should really be out here and you judges if this gets to you then I don't think that you should do anything about it because we're all about disclosure. Now, of course disclosure is great unless you disclose lies.</s>VAUSE: Right.</s>LEVINSON: And that's what the FBI and the Department of Justice are in an entirely unprecedented move saying.</s>VAUSE: And they don't want to disclose, you know, the Democrat memo that goes with it --</s>LEVINSON: Right.</s>VAUSE: -- which will be a counterpoint. But Peter -- the administration is arguing here the previous memo out there is all about being open and honest and transparent. Listen to this.</s>HOGAN GIDLEY, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: He absolutely wants transparency.</s>KELLYANE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT: We want it to be a deliberative process and we respect the process, the transparency and accountability.</s>SANDERS: We've said all along from day one that we want full transparency in this process.</s>VAUSE: So everyone got their talking points, they stuck to script but given the administration's record so far here -- honest, open transparency is a little stretch for this administration.</s>PETER MATTHEWS, PROFESSOR, CYPRUS COLLEGE: It's very strange because it's the opposite of transparency. They're putting out information that's inaccurate. It's been shown to have been altered by Nunes, not to mention his</s>VAUSE: And it's also been revealed that Nunes didn't even read the source material, you know. It's just basically the staffers' opinions all pulled together.</s>MATTHEWS: Pulled together.</s>VAUSE: Ok. One of the biggest issues is did the White House work with Nunes in putting this memo together?</s>CUOMO: Did Devin Nunes work with anybody in the White House on that memo?</s>SANDERS: Not that I know of.</s>CUOMO: He wouldn't' answer that question.</s>SANDERS: Right. And I just don't know the answer. I'm not aware of any conversations or coordination with Congressman Nunes.</s>VAUSE: Jessica -- again credibility issues here when it comes to Nunes and the White House. If there was some kind of collaboration between the Congressman and the administration, what are the implications?</s>LEVINSON: Well, I mean I think the implications are that it just further undermines this document. So we already know that the FBI and the Department of Justice have said it's not only dangerous but it's misleading. So it will put us in a position of threatening our national security and it will give the public the wrong impression. But if you add to that that the Trump administration is potentially -- and it's interesting because Representative Nunes also had kind of a non-denial denial. If they're working in concert, I mean that just goes to show I think not necessarily what legal implications are but what political implications there are.</s>VAUSE: You know, part of the campaign to discredit the FBI and to prove there is this bias, deep state operating there against the President has been to highlight these text messages between these two agents who were having an extramarital affair and they're exchanging messages that were critical of candidate Donald Trump. CNN has obtained e-mails that show Peter Strzok -- one of the agents supported reopening the Clinton investigation once the e-mails were discovered on disgraced former Representative Anthony Weiner's laptop, according to a source familiar with Strzok's thinking. Peter -- again this seems to undermine the theory that, you know, Strzok and the woman -- the other agent who's having the affair, were leading, you know, the Trump resistance.</s>MATTHEWS: It totally undermines it.</s>VAUSE: And the texts don't even support that anyway. What do they got here?</s>MATTHEWS: It totally undermines this. It's contradictory and I don't think people are going to believe it once they see the texts are contrary to what they were saying. So I think that this is really an affront to the rule of law. This is much deeper than a few memos going around. The concept of the rule of law is that no one is above the law. The law should apply equally to everyone including the President. And here is inside workers like Nunes trying to get the President the inside job so to speak to let him get away with thing by changing all the evidence and information that's around. That's a complete undermining of the rule of law principle.</s>LEVINSON: But I mean let's be clear. This is what would be or wannabe autocrats do. So this is -- we're looking at someone who's not respecting the -- how there's a separate branch, a legislative branch, that functions who's potentially conspiring with Representative Nunes about the memo who's undermining the Department of Justice who should be serving -- the members of the Department of Justice serve the constitution and they serve our country, not the President. And so this kind of consolidation of power and undermining of the FBI investigation -- and that's to the last point that you talked about with Juliette. And that's the thing that worries me the most which is what if you have -- you come out with this smoking gun and a third of the country says --</s>VAUSE: Right.</s>LEVINSON: -- I'm sorry, I saw those text messages --</s>VAUSE: Fake news.</s>LEVINSON: -- between those two FBI agents.</s>VAUSE: I want to get to this reporting from the "New York Times". Mark Corallo, CNN understands that he will -- I received this request for an interview by Robert Mueller. He was the spokesman for the Trump legal team until he resigned in July last year. The "New York Times" is adding this. "Mr. Corallo I planning to tell Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Miss Hicks said during the call that e-mails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting that was the one with, you know, every Russian in New York turned up including a lawyer linked to the Kremlin. This is also one where, you know, Mr. Trump was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russian. Hope Hicks apparently said it will never out. That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Miss Hicks could be contemplating obstructing of justice. Lawyers for Hicks deny that she ever said that. But, you know, again it seems that, you know, they keep building this very strong case from the President on down for obstruction of justice.</s>MATTHEWS: A pattern throughout the administration at the highest levels. It's not just the President, obviously. Now, you've got Hope Hicks and many others involved in this pattern of obstructing the truth, obstructing an investigation that was ongoing and legitimate. This is very dangerous for our constitutional system.</s>LEVINSON: It could be very serious but I would say that statement of it will never come out, I'm not seeing oh, my God we've got obstruction of justice.</s>VAUSE: Right.</s>LEVINSON: Obstruction of Justice is a very specific statute and it requires a corrupt intent. That could say I hope -- I mean you could imply I hope it never gets out. I don't want it to ever get out. Or we'll make sure that we're protecting the President. Wanting to slow the investigation and wanting to ensure that things don't hit the public eye is very different from lets go down the prongs of a statute.</s>VAUSE: Right. Ok. Glad you added that in. So Jessica and Peter -- good to see you both. Thank you.</s>MATTHEWS: Thank you.</s>SESAY: And now we turn to Afghanistan, a country reeling from a relentless string of terror attacks. In just the past couple of weeks terrorists have stormed a luxury hotel, attacked an officer of the aid group Save the Children, blown up an ambulance on a crowded street and targeted a military base. In all at least 140 people were killed, most of those in the capital of Kabul, a city now living in fear as our own Nick Paton Walsh reports.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The still in the air of Kabul's normally hectic rush hour speaks of the panic gripping a city that was once a safe haven and now feels like the front line. "Do you have papers," they ask, eerily targeting vehicles with vehicle with government plates, flashing police lights torn out. The focus on government vehicles or vehicles trying to look like they're part of the police or military clearly a nervousness they might be being used to bring insurgents into the capital. This one seemed suspicious yet turns out to be a regional governor's security. Who can you trust in the oncoming blizzard? Barriers restrict the height of trucks and so darkly, the amount of explosive they could. And here where an ambulance car bomb killed over a hundred, thread and debris litter the streets still. The ambulance suicide car bomb, pretty sophisticated. It came through this checkpoint saying they had an appointment in the hospital where they parked for 20 to 30 minutes and then came out again with bomb on board detonating just down the street in a devastating blast. It blew out windows meant to keep the sick warm. Even now ambulances aren't allowed to drive into the compound; the sick are hand-carried in. Hospitals are struggling across the capital from a week of savagery. But also too is the nation's confidence. Actor Massoud Hashmi (ph) was the war hero face of anti-insurgency movies telling Afghans not to flee their homeland as refugees but stay, build and fight. In the recent attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul he watched as two friends were shot in front of him and he was then shot. And he still has a bullet inside of him.</s>MASSOUD HASHMI, AFGHAN ACTOR: We all kept silence in a corner. I was bleeding, horribly bleeding. It's very hard to see your death is coming to you and step away from you. So after three hours the Afghan Special Force entered the salon (ph). I introduced myself, everybody know me and the soldier also know me that's ok come out. We took 14 people with myself and saved their lives.</s>WALSH: Yet his conscience means he must change his message. But now you're telling people that they should leave?</s>HASHMI: Most people want to leave (ph), but you're encouraging people to stay in Afghanistan I'm not saying that again because I feel guilty. If I do that -- you know I'm a famous person if I say something people will accept. Most of the people ask me on the street, you say stay in Afghanistan what should we do? There's no hope people know. I'm not feeling secure inside my house. Now Kabul is changed into a war zone.</s>WALSH: And the hot violent summer months are still far away. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN -- Kabul.</s>VAUSE: Well, convicted sexual abuser Larry Nassar is back in court for yet another sentencing hearing. We'll have those details in just a moment.</s>SESAY: And one of his alleged victims is speaking out. Why Simone Biles said she couldn't attend Nassar's hearing.