Vote To Release Dem Memo Could Happen Tomorrow; GOP Lawmakers Defend Mueller Probe After Memo Release; President Says "No" To Long Super Bowl Tradition
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: ... to the controversial Nunes memo. The House Intelligence Committee is expected to vote as early as tomorrow on whether to release the Democrats' version. It directly rebuts alleged abuses at the FBI and the Justice Department. Now, if the vote passes, because it adds classified materials, the rebuttal will be sent to President Trump's desk, where he'll have to decide whether to let you see it, like he did with the Republican memo. Now, the president may not like what he sees with this second document. We have told you how he wanted to release the Nunes memo, because he thought it would undermine the Mueller investigation. He seemed to confirm that yesterday, when he tweeted that it totally vindicates him in the probe. But Republicans and Democrats say that's not true. Here's a top Democrat sending this warning.</s>SEN. DICK DURBIN (D), MINORITY WHIP: To say that that's the end of the investigation, that this is all that Donald Trump needs to fire Rosenstein or to fire Bob Mueller, I'll just tell you, this could precipitate a constitutional crisis. If the House Republicans believe they've set the stage for this president to end this investigation, they are basically saying that in America, one man is above the law. And that's not a fact.</s>CABRERA: We continue to cover the fallout. Let's go to Boris Sanchez. He is in West Palm Beach, Florida, where the president has been spending the weekend. And, Boris, the president says he's in the clear. What are we hearing from members of his own party?</s>BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ana, some Republicans have outright contradicted what the president has been saying this weekend over Twitter, as you noted, he tweeted that the Nunes memo vindicates him. That it proves that the Russia investigation is a hoax. At one point last night, he actually tweeted a portion of a Wall Street Journal editorial that supposes that there are political actors at the Department of Justice and the FBI that are anti-Trump. We also saw his son, Donald Trump Jr. on Fox News last night saying that the release of this memo is sweet revenge for him and his family. Despite that, you had a number of Republican lawmakers come out on the Sunday morning talk shows and draw the line much closer in than the president did, saying that the memo doesn't go as far as he's claiming that it does. One of them, South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy, really had strong words. Listen to what he and some others had to say.</s>REP. TREY GOWDY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: The dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an e-mail sent by Cambridge Analytica. The dossier really has nothing to do with George Papadopoulos' meeting in Great Britain. It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe even without a dossier.</s>REP. BRAD WENSTRUP (R), OHIO: I support the mueller investigation. Now, I hope that he does it fairly and honestly. Of course, we would always expect that.</s>REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO: No, this memo isn't about special counsel's investigation. It's not about Trump.</s>REP. CHRIS STEWART (R), UTAH: It would be a mistake for anyone to suggest that the Special Counsel shouldn't complete his work. I support his work. I want him to finish it. I hope he finishes it as quickly as possible. This memo has, frankly, nothing at all to do with the special counsel.</s>SANCHEZ: now, Ana, I mentioned Trey Gowdy by name, because his perspective is especially significant. Even according to Devin Nunes, Trey Gowdy is the only Republican on the House Intelligence Committee who has seen that raw underlying intelligence that led a judge to approve those FISA warrants to surveil Carter Page. So if anyone has perspective, not only on the validity of the Nunes memo but also on the surveillance of Carter Page himself, and the implications of that on the Russia investigation, it is Trey Gowdy. As you noted, Democrats may vote tomorrow to try to declassify the so- called Schiff memo, their answer to the Nunes memo. We got a chance to speak with deputy press secretary raj shah on Friday and we asked him if he felt the president might approve the declassification of the answer to the Nunes memo from Democrats. He said that he believed that the president would be inclined to do so, even though we should point out the president has put a lot of stake in the Nunes memo and it's unclear why he would declassify something that contradicts it. Ana.</s>CABRERA: Boris, of course, the Super Bowl is about to get underway in less than two hours. Our program is naturally going to be much more entertaining, but worth noting, the president opted out of doing that traditional Super Bowl interview. Do we know who he is rooting for?</s>SANCHEZ: Yes, the president breaking with tradition there, one of many occasions on which he has done so. We don't have a clear indication of who the president is rooting for, which is kind of surprising, because he has this bromance with Tom Brady and the owner of the Patriots, Robert Kraft. He did put out a statement that I think is noteworthy and here it is. The president writing, quote, as many Americans come together to watch the Super Bowl, Melania and I extend our greetings and appreciation for those who make occasions like this possible, particularly the brave men and women of our armed forces. Their sacrifice is stitched into each star and every stripe of our star spangled banner. We hold them in our hearts and thank them for our freedoms as we proudly stand for the national anthem. So the president again using the Super Bowl as he did with the State of the Union as a moment to push this sort of culture war stance that he's taken, that people should be standing for the national anthem. We should make note that Tom Brady kind of broke with the president on his stance regarding players standing or sitting during the national anthem, so that may be why we haven't seen a prediction from Donald Trump. But again, he's using the Super Bowl as a political tool to either rile up his base or to call out people that he sees as enemies, Ana.</s>CABRERA: Or maybe he's trying to distract from other things we're talking about today. Boris Sanchez, thank you very much. Let's bring in our panel, Bloomberg political reporter, Sahil Kapur, CNN legal analyst, former special assistant to Robert Mueller at the DOJ, Michael Zeldin, and CNN political analyst and congressional reporter for the Washington Post, Karoun Demirjian. So, Karoun, we just listened to four Republicans that, Boris, talked to in that sound bite as they were defending the Mueller investigation. Do you think this is how Republicans and the president expected this all to play out after the memo's release?</s>KAROUN DEMIRJIAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, look, you've got different camps of Republicans who are looking at the memo in different ways. The GOP leaders, Paul Ryan included, have all been saying, this is not about Mueller -- this is not about Mueller, this is about cleaning House at the FBI for the few bad eggs there might be there. But there's another faction of the GOP, which is a lot more the conservative Republicans who are in the party, that have been saying, oh, we have to do a much deeper House cleaning, this you know, infects the entire agency. And some people who have been saying now the foundations of Mueller's probe are also suspects, because now we don't trust the intelligence that we had that led to the subjects that are addressed in this memo. You've got that divide going on in the GOP right now. And I think what you're hearing when you're hearing from the intelligence committee, Republicans who are running this probe into allegations of ties between Trump and Russia, and the leaders is trying to kind of quote that and hold that swell for their party who are saying, this is about Mueller, too, at bay. But it's an ongoing conflict point basically between members of the GOP as to whether they think this should rise to the level of affecting Mueller's probe or not. And they just put...</s>CABRERA: Sahil, why wasn't Devin Nunes out doing a victory lap on the Sunday morning talk shows?</s>SAHIL KAPUR, POLITICAL REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: Well, Ana, I think one of the reasons is that, this memo was hyped up by a lot of President Trump's allies to be something that its content don't seem to reveal. There were several weeks of this hashtag Release The Memo campaign which kind of took on a life of its own in conservative media, alleging essentially that there was a deep state conspiracy involving the FBI and DOJ against the president of the United States, against their own government. It spun a little bit out of control as people got carried away with it. And the contents of the memo don't entirely live up to that. I think the central allegation in it was that the so-called Steele dossier, which was paid for by Democrats, written by a former British spy, was the fundamental basis to get a warrant to spy on Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser. Democrats dispute that. They say there would have been a FISA application and there would have been probably a warrant given without this information. Democrats are sort of approaching this with one hand tied behind their back. They're saying the information in this memo is incomplete, it's distorted. But there is other information that is currently -- that is currently classified, that they cannot discuss. And that is where we're seeing the debate in the next few days, starting as early as tomorrow, as pointed out Ana.</s>CABRERA: Right.</s>KAPUR: Democrats are going to try to release their memo. We'll see what the White House does, but the president views this as a vindication of himself. A number of members in his own party don't see it a as that way.</s>CABRERA: Not so fast. Michael, hearing Republicans defend Mueller, does that give you confidence that he'll be protected if the president did move to remove him?</s>MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, I would love to see it from Republicans who are still running for office as opposed to Trey Gowdy, who has announced that he is going to resign. So we see in some of these Republicans, like Jeff Flake and Trey Gowdy, different conversations than those who are still running for office. So I'm not sure that one should be so sanguine that they've already decided that this is something that has to go forward and fulsomely. But, you know, it's a good start, if you will.</s>CABRERA: Michael, I'm wondering how the president's reaction -- what he tweeted out after the memo's release, essentially, saying, see, this is vindication in the Mueller probe, does that now be used, is that now going to be used as evidence in some capacity in the Mueller investigation? That he was doing this with a political intent by releasing this memo?</s>ZELDIN: So we have reported that the president is alleged to have spoken to friends after the -- or just before the release of the memo. And he said to them, allegedly, I am going to release this memo, because it is going to interfere with or impact negatively the Mueller investigation. That is what gives us a window into his intentions. And that is something that Mueller may take account of when he's trying to assess whether east actions that the president undertook were undertaken with corrupt intent, that is to violate the obstruction of justice statutes or can be evaluated in terms of an abuse of office. So it's not necessarily a criminal act in and of itself, or something that is a step in the further direction of obstruction, but it is a window into the president's thinking and that's what Mueller needs in order to evaluate whether he's acting with corrupt intent or benign intent.</s>CABRERA: Karoun, John Brennan, the director of the CIA has some choice words about Congressman Nunes' efforts in drafting and releasing this memo. Let's listen.</s>JOHN BRENNAN, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I think it really underscores just how partisan Mr. Nunes had been. He has abused the office of the chairmanship of HPSCI. And I don't say that lightly. You know, if there are issues related to the process involving FISA and if there are concerns about how forthcoming the bureau is, and I think the bureau, from what I've been able to tell, was very forthcoming, this was a renewal of FISA. But if he had concerns about that, he could have hearings. He could bring in members of the FBI and others. And to really seek what is -- you know, needs to be done differently. But he didn't do that. He just put out publicly one side in a very selective cherry picked memo.</s>CABRERA: So he says, this clearly was a partisan, politicized effort. Can Republicans afford to not release the Democrats' document, Karoun?</s>DEMIRJIAN: Well, if Republicans are saying that they are doing this minimal transparency, they're kind of hard-pressed not to also vote to release the Democrats' document. And you heard, Devin Nunes, did an interview on Fox News Friday night which he said, yes, he would vote to release it. He just didn't say when he would vote to release it. So you may have the Republicans or enough Republicans on that committee joining with the Democrats to get their memo released. But there's two backstops to that. One, is that the Democrats have already said, we're going to be more responsible with this, we're going to involve the FBI and the intelligence community and let them redact whatever they want to redact. So we may not see the full context that Democrats have been saying is there that they want to prevent to everybody, if those redactions are made to preserve the classified nature of information that's currently classified. And then there's the question of the president. The president has said that he feels vindicated by the Republican memo. He may not feel so vindicated by the Democrats' memo when he reads it. And he has five days in which he can block any action by the committee to try to release it. If he does that, and you know, there's a mechanism for the full House to vote on it and try to override him, but it becomes politically more tricky at that point, because then you're involving all as, Michael, was referring to, these Republicans who have said that they believe that the Mueller investigation, you know, may fall under the substance of this memo. And who are running for office. And who may not want to let that rebuttal out into the same sphere, same debate as the GOP memo is right now. Because that's right now all we're able to discuss, because we haven't seen the text of the Democrats' rebuttal.</s>CABRERA: Sahil, what do you make of how House Speaker Paul Ryan has handled all of this?</s>KAPUR: So he's taken the interesting position where he says, this is not about an attack on the FBI or the DOJ, even though some of -- you know, some of the attention may be there, at least from other pro- Trump forces who wanted this released. He said this is all about civil liberties and he has made the point that if there was a political documentary that formed the core basis for surveillance of an American citizen and that the courts were not told full context of that, then that's troubling. He's made that point and I think, frankly, a lot of civil libertarians would agree him, if that is the case. The point is, we don't know that that is the case, because Democrats have not been able to tell their side of it. They have not been able to release so far the full context, you know, of the information that they say will paint the full picture and tell the full story. The politics going forward, Ana, I think are extremely important, because how this gets portrayed, how voters perceive the impact of this memo will probably be as important as the contents of the memo, if not more important. Because a number of legal experts believe that it's doubtful, if best, that Bob Mueller lend up indicting President Trump for obstruction of justice or any other crime. The bar is very high to do that with a sitting president of the United States. And the final verdict could be through a court of public opinion, through the people's elected representatives in Congress, should it be censure, should it be something drastic like impeachment? Should the president be vindicated or should be voted out in 2020? And how the Republican base feels about that question is going to impact how Republicans in Congress handle it. Right now we've seen indications that many Republicans do believe this is politically motivated, because that's what, you know, a lot of their preferred media sources have been telling them. So, the impact of this going forward a very important thing, I think, to keep our eyes on.</s>CABRERA: Very quickly, Michael, as far as the timing of when we might actually see what Mueller has found or not, do you have any better sense of where he's hat in his investigation, given we know that the Flynn hearing was pushed now down the road to say, may.</s>ZELDIN: So, it seems to me that Mueller and I haven't spoken to, Bob, and I wouldn't speak to, Bob, has a couple of work streams that are simultaneously ongoing. One is this obstruction of justice, abuse of office. One is the overarching notion of collusion, which is really coordination with foreign nationals to impact the election, in violation of federal election commission regulations. The other one is conspiracy to violate the computer fraud and abuse act by receiving stolen e-mails and further distributing them. That's what we're calling collusion broadly. And then there's financial crimes, the allegations that are similar to those of Manafort where it is alleged that the president while private citizen, Trump may have received money from abroad that was illegally sourced. It seems from what we can see in the public domain that the -- that Mueller is moving most rapidly on the coordination and the obstruction of justice. We haven't seen any indications of where he is on the financial crimes. There are rumors that there were subpoenas issued to Deutsche Bank, which is one of the banks that banked the Trump organization before he was president. That's a more complicated investigation. So that might be a little bit further behind. So it's hard to tell whether these things are all going to come forward at the same time or we're going to see them in a staggered timeline.</s>CABRERA: All right. Michael Zeldin, Sahil Kapur, and Karoun Demirjian, thank you all. Coming up, we're following the latest out of South Carolina where a train collision killed at least two people and injured more than a hundred earlier this morning. Investigators have some clues as to what happened. We'll tell you what, when we come back.