Coats Testifies about Russia Conversation with Trump; Flynn Takes Fifth.
BLITZER: We're watching important developments from two key figures at the center of the investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election. The new director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, and the former CIA director, John Brennen, both testifies at separate hearings up on Capitol Hill today. A lot to unpack right now. Let's bring in our panel. Our CNN legal analyst, Paul Callan is here, our chief political correspondent Dana Bash, and our CNN politics reporter and editor at large, Chris Cillizza. Dana, the former CIA director, Brennan, he said that Russia, quote, brazenly interfered in the U.S. presidential elections and that the Trump campaign had contacts with Russia, but he stopped short of calling it collusion. Your reaction?</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He stopped short of calling it collusion, but he made extremely clear that that was the hope and goal of the Russians and that that is what he saw while he was still in his position as CIA director in and around the -- the presidential campaign. This is just added to the growing and lengthy list of things that the Trump administration doesn't want to hear and that the president himself clearly doesn't want to hear. The fact that we have somebody of this stature who had the kind of role that he did, the CIA director, during the 2016 election, saying -- basically going further than any official has to date who was in -- in a position to know at the time, is really bad news for the Trump campaign -- excuse me, for the former Trump campaign, for the Trump White House and is a perfect example of why the Justice Department and Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, decided that it was appropriate to have a special counsel and will give more fuel to Democrats and some Republicans, very few but mostly Democrats in Congress who say -- to complement that federal investigation, they would like to have an independent commission, a 9/11 style commission. It's only going to add some meat to the bone of that argument.</s>BLITZER: You know, Paul, a lot of Democrats are saying now that these new revelations are moving this case closer and closer towards obstruction of justice. Are they right?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Maybe in a very, very small way. But, remember, this is a complicated process. You have to link collusion with the Russians to the Trump campaign and then you have to link it to the president. And you also have to have collusion with respect to criminality. Remember, it's not a crime to influence an election. Everybody hires consultants to try to influence an election. You have to engage in criminal activity. In other words, you'd have to show that people on the Trump campaign were actually assisting the Russians in getting into the computer system to get the e-mails or doing other criminal acts that the president was aware of. That's a very steep hill to climb and I don't see it being climbed effectively in what I've heard so far today.</s>BLITZER: Key word, so far.</s>CALLAN: Yes.</s>BLITZER: At least as of today. Chris, the director of National Intelligence, Dan Coats, he's a former U.S. congressman from Indiana, he was asked about the Trump administration's sharing Israel's intelligence with the Russians. Listen to this.</s>DAN COATS, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: We worked through a process. I can't specifically describe that process here today. I'm new to the job. Weeks in. But there are procedures and processes in place I'd be happy to get those back to you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the Trump administration undergo that interagency clearance process prior to the president's May 10th meeting with the Russian government?</s>COATS: I have no awareness of that.</s>BLITZER: All right, Chris, what's your reaction?</s>CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, again, a lot of times with these testimonies, listen to what's not said as much as what is said. If Dan Coats could have said, yes, they did, in regards to that question, did they follow the procedures related to declassifying information, he would have. There are two reasons why he might not. One, because he knows they didn't, or, two, because he simply doesn't know. It is possible certainly he may not know. As he noted, he's relatively new to the job. But two times, that time, Wolf, and when Dan Coats was talking about -- was asked directly, did Donald Trump ask you to knock down the collusion argument in this federal investigation, both times he didn't answer. Now, he said he didn't feel comfortable discussing his conversations with the president of the United States in an open hearing, which is fine. And, again, two options, either Trump did ask him to do it or he didn't and he just doesn't want to talk about it in public. But there are -- there are clearer answers he could have given that he didn't give. So, you know, neither of those are the exact great answer if you're Donald Trump trying to beat back what is a growing controversy here, certainly politically if not also legally.</s>BLITZER: Dana, you spoke with Senator John McCain and Senator Mark Warner about President Trump asking the director of National Intelligence and the director of the National Security Agency to deny any evidence of collusion during the 2016 election. Listen to their responses.</s>SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), CHAIRMAN OF SENATE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I don't think that it's logical to assume that the president of United States would ask the director of National Intelligence not to investigate the Russia issue. I just -- if you'd have said that's going to happen, I'd say, yes, it's a lousy movie.</s>SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VICE CHAIRMAN, INTEL COMMITTEE: We have not been briefed on that. We are still pursuing vigorously and we'll have more to announce later today our next steps.</s>BLITZER: Well, what else did they tell you, Dana? Did Senator Warner, who's the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, tell you what he's planning to do as far as Michael Flynn, the fired national security adviser, for example?</s>BASH: Well, two things. One is, you heard him say we -- I have not been briefed on that. That was a question that I asked about something in "The Washington Post" report yesterday that was kind of varied, lower down under the big glaring headline about allegations that the president called the DNI and the head of the NSA to say, please, say publicly there was no collusion. Down below was also a line or two about the idea that senior White House officials also called the FBI and others to say, please, don't, you know, to try to basically get answers and get information, which is inappropriate. So that's the question I asked and he said he wasn't briefed on that. But probably more importantly is what we may or may not learn today about the actions that the Senate Intelligence chair, Richard Burr and Mark Warner, the top Democrat you just saw there, will take to respond to the fact that Michael Flynn invoked his Fifth Amendment right to not testify before the Intelligence Committee, but also is refusing to give over documents. The question I asked is, will you find him in contempt of Congress, and that is probably what we're going to hear today. Now, he strongly hinted but was very careful to say, hold on, we'll talk about next steps later. Strongly hinted at the notion that withholding documents is a bridge too far. Going -- saying that I don't want to testify, that's everybody's right. But withholding documents when others have given over documents might be something that they are going to try to punish him on. We'll see what they say later today.</s>BLITZER: Well, Paul, what kind of punishment are we talking about? Contempt if -- if he continues to refuse to provide Congress with those documents?</s>CALLAN: Contempt can be punished by up to one year in prison if you're found guilty of it. And you can be -- you can be convicted by the House of Representatives by a full vote or it can be referred to a U.S. attorney's office for an actual prosecution in court. But there is a one-year penalty for the crime.</s>BLITZER: And there doesn't seem to be any desire to offer Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, immunity in exchange for his testimony.</s>CALLAN: No. And I think, in the end, that's going to make the case against him very difficult. Any American citizen has the right to assert the Fifth Amendment. However, he's asserting it with respect to document production. That's a harder road to prevent production of documents. But there is a -- there's an obscure legal principle that's in some limited cases allow you to assert the fifth with respect to documents as well.</s>BLITZER: And, Chris Cillizza, you wrote an important piece, just posted it at cnnpolitics.com, getting back to what the former CIA director testified today about the entire issue involving how concerned he was about Russia's interference. And you had one quote from John Brennan you thought was very significant.</s>CILLIZZA: Yes, and it's -- Dana was mentioning this earlier. Essentially John Brennan, I'll paraphrase him here, but John Brennan essentially said, look, you know, from what I knew at the time when I was CIA director, it gave me pause.