Polls Open in Britain for Snap Election; Rain in U.K. As Voters Head to Polls; Comey Testimony Released Before Thursday's Hearing; Trump Offers to Mediate Persian Gulf Dispute; Intel Chiefs Won't Say if Trump Spoke of Russia Probe
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: This is the CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles.</s>VAUSE: Hello, and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause. You're in the third hour of NEWSROOM L.A. Finally here, like Christmas, Election Day in the UK. Voters are now choosing a new prime minister. Polls opened just moments ago. Let's head now to Nina dos Santos in London. Nina, we're in the "Twilight Zone" now. There are some pretty tough rules come into play on what we can and cannot report. There's a lot more that we cannot, right?</s>NINA DOS SANTOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We have to be very careful about what we say here. At the moment, there is no possibility of talking about polls. All of that is said and done. The campaigns have been fought and, boy, have they been fought toughly over the last eight weeks of this snap election. So now really the objective is to focus on voter turnout as well. I'm outside one of these polling stations in north London, one of 40,000, John, and it's just as the doors open across the United Kingdom. Some 47 million people across the country eligible to vote in this general election. That means registration is slightly higher than it was two years ago, when people last went to the polls 2015. Also, turnout will be key as an indicator of voter fatigue as well. Remember that we had a general election only two years ago. We had the Brexit vote, we had various referenda on other issues, like Scottish independent and so on. So a lot of voters saying going into this election that they are feeling exhausted about being consulted on this country's political future. As you'd imagine, with Brexit on the cards, while they'll have to talk about these big issues from now to kingdom come probably. When it comes to the voter turnout for the youth population, that's crucial. We've see in the runup to this election is a big effort to try to mobilize 18 to 24 year olds. More than one million have signed up for this election. In the last day of registration at the end of May, more than 250,000 alone decided to put their names down. The big question is will they actually turn out to vote. When it comes to the national average, last time Britains went to the polls, about two-thirds of the eligible population decided to turn out and vote. When it comes to 18 to 24 year olds, many voting for the first time, well, the average turnout last time was only about 43 percent. In cities like these, throughout the course of the day, people will be looking into it, of course, before the polls close at 10:00 and that's when we'll get the exit polls and the counting begins for those 650 seats up for grabs in the house of parliament, including this one here in north London -- John?</s>VAUSE: OK, so polls close about 10:00 p.m. So when can we expect the first results?</s>DOS SANTOS: usually, exit polls come out about 10:15 and voting continues apace from them. I remember covering the 2015 general election. It didn't become clear exactly how the political landscape was going to fall. 2015 was a slight upset because the Conservative Party did manage to get the majority in that 2015 election, complete surprise. Usually things don't become clear until the early hours of the morning. The reality is that, at the moment, voting all finished at 10:00, and then from then, there will be exit polls and the counting will begin. Maybe throughout the course of the early hours of the morning people get a clearer picture -- John?</s>VAUSE: There has been a lot of voting, hasn't there. When you put it that way, there was the referendum, the Brexit, the election. Oh, my goodness. OK, Nina, thank you. Try to say dry. It looks awful there. It is a rainy day across the United Kingdom. Meteorologist Allison Chinchar with us now with the Election Day forecast. I guess if you're heading out, grab an umbrella, grab a raincoat?</s>ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, and it doesn't matter where. Mother Nature is not being picky and choosey about particular area of the UK were rain will be. That looks pretty widespread. Here's a look at the overall general picture. Again, when you look, we have this particular low that will bring in wind and also heavy rain at times. Some areas will start to rain a little earlier than others. The farther west you are, you'll see your rain arrive a little on the earlier side. Here's radar for the last 24 hours. You can see already rain showers starting to trickle into places like Dublin, around Liverpool, Manchester, around Leeds, and even now starting to push into portions of Glasgow. At the time, incredibly light. Here's a look at the forecast as we go through the day today. Gradually as we make our way into the afternoon and evening hours, the system will spread a little further east and also off to the north as well. Overall rain total, this isn't necessarily going to produce torrential downpours. It's mainly going to be a very light but steady rain for a lot of the areas. Your overall totals likely to be about 10 to 25 millimeters tops. Will be some possible areas that pick up as much as 50 millimeters. But overall, the bigger issue is the wind. We're talking 48 to 50 kilometers per hour winds. Mix in some thunderstorms and the potential for some hail. So London, Birmingham, Manchester, really all of these locations, John, are going to get rain. It's just a matter of what the best times to head out when you're going to get the least amount of rain.</s>VAUSE: That's always been the case across the U.K., isn't it?</s>VAUSE: When I head out, that's when it rains the most. Allison, good to see you. Thank you.</s>CHINCHAR: Thank you.</s>VAUSE: CNN special election coverage starts at 10:00 p.m. London time. That's when the polls are closing. So please join us for all of the results. The former FBI director's Senate testimony just hours away now. James Comey has not spoken publicly since President Donald Trump fired him last month but he has released his opening remarks. Jim Sciutto has details of the seven-page statement on Comey's conversations with U.S. president.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the crucial question of whether the president attempted to influence ongoing FBI investigations, Comey said the president told him quote, "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go." Comey makes clear, quote, "I had understood the president to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador." In his letter firing the FBI director, the president said that Comey had told him three times that he himself was not under investigation. He repeated that claim in an interview with NBC.</s>LESTER HOLT, NBC ANCHOR: Let me ask you about your termination letter to Mr. Comey. You write, "I greatly appreciate you informing me on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation." Why did you put that in there?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because he told me that. I mean, he told me.</s>SCIUTTO: In his written testimony, Comey largely confirms those occasions, but said they were specifically about whether the president was the subject of a counterintelligence investigation. First, on January 6th, when Comey went to Trump Tower to brief the President-elect on a dossier of allegations involving Mr. Trump, first reported by CNN, Comey said, quote, "During our one-on-one meeting at Trump Tower, based on President-elect Trump's reaction to the briefing and without him indirectly asking the question, I offered that assurance that he was not under FBI counterintelligence probe. The second time, at dinner on January 27th, Comey said the president told him he was considering ordering an investigation into the dossier. Comey says, quote, "I replied that he should give that careful thought because it might create a narrative that we were investigating him personally, which we weren't." And in a March 30th phone call, Comey, quote, "Explained that we had briefed the leadership of Congress on exactly which individuals we were investigating and that we told those congressional leaders that we were not personally investigating President Trump. "I reminded him I previously told him that. He repeatedly told me we need to get that fact out." "The dossier, in particular, attracted the president's attention. He said he had nothing to do with Russia, had not been involved with hookers in Russia, and had always assumed he was being recorded when in Russia. He asked what we could do to lift the cloud." The president, Comey says, was also very interested in establishing his loyalty. In their January 27th dinner, Comey said President Trump told him, quote, "I need loyalty, I expect loyalty." Comey went on, "I did not move, speak or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed." He said he told Trump, finally, quote, "You will always get honesty from me, to which the president responded, that is what I want honest loyalty." (on camera): On the investigation into Michael Flynn and Russia, Comey directly contradicts the president. On May 18th, the president was asked in a press conference if he, in any way, shape or form, tried to interfere or tell Comey to lay off the investigation into Flynn, he said no twice and then next question. In his written testimony and again tomorrow, Comey lays out a very detailed case, saying the opposite. Jim Sciutto, CNN, Washington.</s>VAUSE: For more now on the legal issues facing the president, Seth Abramson is with us. He's an attorney and professor at the University of New Hampshire in Manchester. Seth, good to have you with us. The big unanswered question from this written testimony from Comey, does any of this build a case for obstruction of justice. Those who say know, they argue the president's actions may have been inappropriate, they weren't criminal, and they say he never explicitly ordered Comey to end the investigation into Michael Flynn.</s>SETH ABRAMSON, ATTORNEY & PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, MANCHESTER: It does make that case. The facts we have from Mr. Comey with his letter to Congress, his opening statement that he'll give tomorrow is a prima facie case, a case on its face, of a violation of obstruction of justice statute, 18 USC 1512, by President Trump. With the obstruction of justice statute, what matters are words and the context in which they're said, not how they make people feel or even the effect of the words.</s>VAUSE: You mentioned the law here. It is pretty clear, someone is guilty if they corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct or impede an active investigation. So explain to me where is the wiggle room and where is the room for interpretation?</s>ABRAMSON: I don't think there is any actual wiggle room. The words were very clear that Mr. Trump indicated to Mr. Comey that he wanted him to let Mr. Flynn go, to drop that prosecution. The context was also very clear. Mr. Trump had order everyone out of the room, including the Attorney General, including Mr. Kushner. And we have to take into account that the event didn't just occur that day, but occurred later on. For instance, Mr. Trump what he said to the Russians about why he fired Mr. Comey, which was he told the Russians, Mr. Kislyak, that he fired Mr. Comey in order to ease the pressure on him from the Russia investigation.</s>VAUSE: It there enough in his written testimony to answer the question why Comey didn't speak out before he was fired if he felt he was being pressured by the president?</s>ABRAMSON: He did speak out. He talked to his boss, he went to Attorney General Sessions, as he indicates in the letter. He specifically said to Mr. Sessions, in fact, he uses the word "implore," he implored Mr. Sessions to make sure that he never be alone again with Mr. Trump. I think the question is now why Attorney General Sessions was not recused at that point, didn't do anything about that extraordinary request from the FBI director.</s>VAUSE: Just are we witnessing one of the big issues here, the fact that Trump fired Comey because he was not happy with the progress of the Russia investigation, isn't that a more significant factor more than the question of obstruction of justice?</s>ABRAMSON: The obstruction of justice statute is implicated with respect to the prosecution for making false statements or the perspective prosecution for making false statements against General Flynn. It has nothing to do with the Russia investigation as a whole. It specifically has to do with whether Mr. Trump attempted to, through perhaps persuasion, obstruct that particular prosecution. So the two shouldn't be conflated, though obviously the prosecution or prospective prosecution of Mr. Flynn is part of the larger Russia inquiry.</s>VAUSE: OK, Seth, thanks for being with us. We appreciate the explanation. Seth Abramson there. Thank you. A lot of politics in all of this. So joining me now, Democratic strategist, Matt Littman; and James Lacy, the author of "Taxifornia." He's also a Trump supporter. Good to have you back, James. It's been a while. So let's start with you. And the reaction that we have from the White House. Donald Trump's personal lawyer released a short statement saying, "The president is pleased that Mr. Comey has finally publicly confirmed his private reports that the president was not under investigation in any Russia probe. The president feels completely and totally vindicated. He is eager to continue to move forward with his agenda." That does seem to ignore the fact that the FBI director will appear in person before the Senate in just a few hours' time.</s>JAMES LACY, AUTHOR & TRUMP SUPPORTER: The Republican National Committee issued a similar statement. I think that it actually is a win for Donald Trump because we have a situation where a president must have been very frustrated to believe that there was an ongoing investigation, at least from reading the "Washington Post" or "The New York Times." The implication was that he was some sort of a target or a figure in an investigation. And he was being told over a period of months, three times by the FBI director, that he was not a target of the investigation. He wanted to get the information out. And I can I can see how this frustration would build. You know, there are other issues to be discussed in the United States today. We need tax reform. We need to fix health care. These are other issues that Trump wanted to move forward with, but felt that he was under a cloud. So I actually think it is a good thing because it has corroborated the fact that he is not under investigation.</s>MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: First, it does not corroborate the fact that he is not under investigation. Comey has not been there for little while. We do have a special counsel looking into this. Trump could very well be under investigation. The special counsel is obviously there to do something. Going back to the point about Trump feeling vindicated, Trump has nothing on his calendar until noon tomorrow. The other day, Sean Spicer said how busy Trump would be busy. It turns out he's not that busy at all. So we can expect to be hearing from Trump during the entire time of Comey's testimony tomorrow. If he already felt vindicated, why would he be tweeting tomorrow morning, which I think we can fully expect.</s>LACY: Matt, when I was in the Reagan administration, I testified before Congress many times, giving updates on the work I was doing. I have to say that if I was going to mention someone at a congressional hearing, I would think that that person would be wanting to watch what I had to say on the television. If you were the subject of an investigation and you were going to be discussed at a congressional hearing, wouldn't you be watching --</s>LITTMAN: It's funny you say that because Sean Spicer said that Trump would be too busy tomorrow. But it turns out he's not.</s>LITTMAN: And also going back to your earlier point</s>LACY: And he's not under investigation.</s>LITTMAN: You don't know that.</s>LACY: No, I do know that. The FBI director said it --</s>LITTMAN: He talked about that was until March 20.</s>LACY: Right.</s>LITTMAN: After March 20, what do you this Mueller is doing? Do you think he is just there to hang out with Donald Trump?</s>LITTMAN: There is a special counsel.</s>VAUSE: Let's assume the former director is accurate in what he has written down in his memos and his testimony to the Senate, then is this statement we're about the hear from the president even true? Listen to this.</s>UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you at any time urge former FBI Director James Comey, in any way, shape or form, to close or to back down the investigation into Michael Flynn? And also, as you know --</s>TRUMP: No. No. Next question.</s>VAUSE: A suggestion of the point where this comes down to a question of credibility. Who is more believable in all this, the president or the former FBI director?</s>LACY: All right, the elephant in the room is whether or not the president is engaged in an obstruction of justice. You just had an expert speak to that. Look, there is no obstruction of justice. What Donald Trump said at that February 17 meeting was, "I hope" that you can see your way to not -- to deal with Flynn. What he meant by that was you have put in context, Flynn had already suffered a consequence in Trump's mine. He had been fired the day before. And for obstruction of justice, the law requires that you have intent and that you actually have an obstruction of justice. There has been no obstruction of justice. The fact of the matter is, is that today, it was confirmed that the Russian investigation is ongoing. Comey himself said in his letter that he ignored it, and that they continued to continue the investigation with respect to Flynn. So to say that there has been some sort of obstruction of justice is really wishful thinking on the part Trump detractors.</s>VAUSE: Matt Littman, though, if there had been obstruction of justice, the consequences of the actions don't matter. If that happens, it is just a separate issue. It comes down to what was said and if that was an attempt, in and of itself. What people felt or the consequences or what happened afterwards are irrelevant.</s>LITTMAN: Well, a very significant point here is a couple of times Trump asked everybody to leave the room so he could talk to the FBI director himself. And assuming it was not because he just wanted to be alone with and play some Lionel Richie music and dim the lights. Obviously, there's something here, there's some intent on Trump's part here. Several times he has asked him, and then he fired him.</s>LITTMAN: Because he wouldn't drop the case</s>LACY: I have to say, Comey asked to have the private meeting with Trump earlier. He was to having private meetings because of the so- called salacious content of some of the charges against Trump, which includes these lies about him in this fake dossier of being with Russian hookers.</s>LITTMAN: Are you saying he wasn't with Russian hookers?</s>LACY: I'm saying he wasn't, but you may say he was.</s>VAUSE: I wonder, because Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence, and Admiral Michael Rogers, Director of the National Security Agency, they were before the Senate on Wednesday. There were asked if they were asked if they were pressured by the White House, by Donald Trump to play down the Russia investigation. This is what they said.</s>UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: Why are you not answering these questions. Is there an invocation by the president of the United States of executive privilege? Is there or not?</s>ADM. MICHAEL ROGERS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY: Not that I'm aware of.</s>UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: Then why are you not answering our questions?</s>ROGERS: I feel it's inappropriate, Senator.</s>UNIDENTIFEID SENATOR: Mr. Coats, same series of questions. What's the basis for your refusal to answer these questions today?</s>DAN COATS, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: The basis is that what I previously explained. I do not believe it is appropriate for me to -</s>UNIDENTIFIED SENATOR: What's the basis? I'm not satisfied with "I do not believe it is appropriate" or "I do not feel I should answer." I want to understand a legal basis. You swore that oath to tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And today, you are refusing to do so. What is the legal basis for your refusal to testify to this committee?</s>COATS: I'm not sure I have a legal basis.</s>VAUSE: James, they said they never felt pressured by the president, but they would not say they were asked by the president. Why wouldn't they say that?</s>LACY: I think that the answer could have been at their fingertips now that Robert Mueller is conducting a criminal investigation. And you know, things have changed now. We had four investigations going on to this whole Russian thing before Mueller was made the special counsel by the deputy attorney general. And those were congressional investigations. And congressional investigations are different than criminal investigations. I think it was even Lindsey Graham who said that when the special counsel was going to be appointed that would change the relationship of all of the actors in this whole drama with respect to the Congress, because when there is an actual prosecutor in place who is collecting evidence --</s>LITTMAN: They just said that they did not have a legal basis for not answering the question. He just said that. They just show a clip of it.</s>LACY: And I'm giving you what the legal basis is that perhaps was not addressed by --</s>LACY: No, no. The reality is that Robert Mueller would not want these officials speaking out about an active investigation because he is relying on them --</s>LITTMAN: Mueller - Comey is speaking tomorrow about all the times Trump asked him to drop this -- drop this case</s>LACY: And Comey was fired, so Comey is no longer involved in the investigation</s>LITTMAN: The Trump administration can hire anybody. And we can have a whole conversation about that. You mentioned before tax reform. This --</s>LACY: I think the taxpayers will be well served by --</s>LITTMAN: How is infrastructure week going for Trump so far?</s>LITTMAN: I mean, his popularity is down to 35 percent. It's at a record low now, so.</s>VAUSE: OK, thank you guys, we'll leave it at that, because clearly, depending on where you sit is how you see this today play out. And I guess something similar will happen on Thursday. Thanks to you both.</s>LACY: Thank you.</s>VAUSE: Please stay with CNN and CNN.com for all of James Comey's testimony. Our special coverage starts Thursday morning, 7:00 a.m. in Washington, noon in London. And the president has decided who he wants to replace James Comey as FBI director. He made the announcement on Twitter. He seemed to catch all of Washington off guard when he posted that he plans to nominate Christopher Wray. A press release from the White House came five hours later. Wray was a federal prosecutor with the Justice Department's Criminal Division from 2003 to 2005. He's now a lawyer in private practice. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie applauded the president's choice. Wray had represented Christie in the so-called Bridgegate affair in which Christie surrogates were accused of causing a huge traffic jam in a political dispute. And they were found guilty, at least some of them. The American Civil Liberties Union has issued this statement, "Christopher Wray's firm's legal work for the Trump family, his history of partisan activity, as well as his history of defending Trump's transition directed during a criminal scandal makes us question his ability to lead the FBI with the independence, even- handed judgment, and commitment to the rule of law that the agency deserves." A short break. Next on NEWSROOM L.A., another round of nuclear tests from North Korea just a day after South Korea's new president said he would suspend the deployment of a missile defense system.