well to high-level briefings Thursday for Republican and Democratic lawmakers
on the Russia investigation amid allegations that the FBI used a
top-secret informant to spy on the Trump campaign both meetings were held as the
president raised new questions about the probe and called for the Department of
Justice to look into whether his campaign was surveilled for political
purposes Wall Street Journal columnist Kim strosahl has been following this
story from the beginning I spoke with her earlier Donald Trump this week Kim
urging the Justice Department's cooperate with a House Intelligence
Committee and there are pledges of new cooperation but if history is a guide
here we have to wait and see really what happens because there's some history of
not cooperating yeah and I would bet on not cooperation if you look over the
past year not just a the refusal to make documents available to the committees
but the severe redactions that have been imposed on the documents that have been
sent over do J's refusal to make witnesses available for different
members and committees in the house and in the Senate they don't want a lot of
this information to come out so I think we can expect that it's all going to
have to be pried out bit by bit okay now we do the name of this contractor has
been widely reported but the we know a fair number of things about them for
example we know he's work um an American who is resident in the UK he met with
three Trump campaign officials all of this from stories that clearly seemed
leaked by the Justice Department and the FBI are those is that how you read it
that they're responsible for leaking all these details yes absolutely they are
and by the way some of the stories said so they said that it was according to
government sources and that usually means Department of Justice FBI you also
have to look at motives here you know this Paul we've been in the journalism
business a long time you always look to see who has an
interest in putting this out and the stories that were written very much took
that the most kind line that you to Department of Justice and FBI even
going so far as to suggest this person who was spying on the Trump campaign was
not in fact spying on the Trump campaign but it very much designed to pass the
FBI in the best light but then why are they blaming the House Intelligence
Committee for having leaked this that the name is there any evidence that that
happened there is absolutely no evidence that that happened and by the way I mean
just a curious point look at the level of details that were put into those
stories about this particular spy / informant the whole reason
devyn newness is going to the Department of Justice with a subpoena is because he
doesn't have the information about this person they have the information about
this person so there was only one side that was in possession of a to leak in
the first place okay so we know from some reporting that this informant met
with Carter page he met with George papadopolis he also met with Sam Clovis
three trump officials what else do we want to learn about this informant and
what he was up to most important question here is timeline if you look at
some of those stories that were leaked to The Times The Washington Post they
all went out of their way or at least one of them went out of their way to say
look none of these contacts took place until after the FBI had started its
counterintelligence investigation on July 31st 2016 but we know when we
report above at least one major interaction that this source had with
Carter page all the way back the beginning of July with an invitation
that had been extended to him for a symposium in England probably at the
beginning of June and there are some other suspicious questions about people
who were approached in the spring so now this is a timeline question why the FBI
first start using a person or more than one person to look at the Trump campaign
okay why yeah but why does this timeline matter and why does it matter if it
happened in the spring it matters because the FBI has dogged lis stuck to
this story that it only began this counterintelligence investigation
because of information it received in the Middle Earth toward the end of July
about an overheard conversation of Trump aide George papadopolis and his claim
that he knew something about and emails now if it started much sooner
than that then obviously that was not the catalyst and it means the FBI hasn't
been straight about what it was that had inspired it to get involved here and
some people you know they worry is there political reason as well what was going
on right was part of the motivation the Christopher steel dossier was that the
motivation from the start and we know that was paid for by the Clinton
campaign we also want to know what government officials knew about this and
what was the reason they gave for tasking this this informant all of that
still has to be uncovered yeah and there's been increasing focus for
instance on former CIA director John Brennan because there has been some
suggestion that he might have been involved in some of this and maybe there
was an interagency task force in the beginning starting in the spring when
people first began to have some concerns about the Trump campaign that's
something to look at because remember we have pretty strict prohibitions Paul on
the CIA and how it can monitor American citizens what about this argument you
hear for the critics of the president that he has crossed some ethical line by
saying to justice cooperate with the House Intelligence Committee is that
crossing a line no because it begins from the premise that is somehow out of
bounds to ask any questions about the investigators and look we do have a
separations of power we have a Congress that is tasked with oversight of the
executive branch and that is the way you rather have it do it rather than the
Trump administration investigating itself as it were but if the Justice
Department is not going to cooperate with duly issued subpoenas then the
president is absolutely right to tell the people who work for him that they
need to respond to you and comply with congressional oversight is the ultimate
burden here maybe on the President to override the Justice Department and
maybe declassify everything and say look you come in and look at a house I'm
saying it's okay and of course he is the power as president to do that he ought
to do it tomorrow in my mind Paul because they are really the only
organization the only body that can get to this people have talked about the
inspector general at the Justice Department but he has not have subpoena
power and a lot of other powers they need to have access to this declassify
it for them and by the way there's no problem with that we're talking about
the gang of eight here these are people with the highest security clearances who
have always in the past been allowed to look at material like this
all right keeps Rasul thanks thanks Paul when we come back president Trump
pulling out if you sit down with King John one at least for now so what's
behind this week's diplomatic dance and what's next
see what happens to them now it was a very nice taste as they put out we'll
see what happened
based on the recent statement of North Korea I have decided to terminate the
plan summit in Singapore on June 12th well many things can happen and a great
opportunity lies ahead potentially I believe that this is a tremendous
setback for North Korea and indeed a setback for the world that was president
Trump Thursday saying he had called off the planned summit with North Korea
blaming increasingly hostile rhetoric from the rogue regime North Korea
responding in a statement said Pyongyang remained open to resolving issues with
Washington regardless of ways at anytime any format the president called that
statement warm and productive on Friday and to talks are ongoing so is there a
diplomatic way forward let's ask Wall Street Journal columnist and deputy
editor Dan henagar and columnist Mariano Stasia o Grady and bill McGurn so bill
what do you make of this on-again off-again dance well I'm probably not as
opposed to the idea of the president sitting down with any leader at any time
as some people are however you know the danger right it's like it's like getting
engaged in planning a wedding and then if the the week before the wedding
you're thinking this isn't the gal for me the pressure when she's in her dress
and the cake is baked and everything you're already there the process
overrides it and that's always a danger because you know people would talk about
it's in Kim's interest to have an agreement and so forth I'm not it didn't
Kim's agreement to have a meeting with president right and it looks like he's a
co-leader with that and that's why I think we always have to keep our eye on
the ball which is denying him the capacity to strike the United States
with the nuclear weapon if a talk would advance that if he's sincere the danger
with the North Koreans is that they've always done these kind of talks I
remember Bill Clinton staring across the DMZ in 1994 saying if you pursued a nuke
it'll be the end of your country it wasn't so they know how to you so that's
the danger that we forget what's at stake here
you I think that the threshold for me is has
a North Korean have the North Koreans made a strategic decision to give up
their program and if they haven't then there's not a lot to talk about right
and I think that the president started to have crazier doubts about that which
is why we got to this point this week but I will give him credit I mean he
never changed you know everybody explained this as the
extreme pressure and he said nothing in that category has changed even as
they've arranged this marriage the u.s. pressure on North Koreans exactly now if
I were the president I would have not I would not have made a commemorative coin
so far in advance but I have to give him credit for saying look you know if you
don't show good faith we're not doing this and that's very different from the
way President Obama behaved with Iran and with Cuba Dan the we know that Kim
jong-un wants a summit appearance at least even if he doesn't want to make
any commitments from it because it puts him on the world stage as trumps equal
but why is Donald Trump seem seemingly so eager to have a summit with Kim well
I think it dates back to the meeting that Kim's sister had at the Olympics
with South Korean president moon it has always been US policy that what we want
from North Korea is an attorney bart complete verifiable denuclearization and
at that time the North Koreans conveyed they might be willing to talk about that
Secretary of State Pompeo went to North Korea came back with the impression that
that kind of discussion was on and then I think it what happened after Kim went
for the second time to visit Jing ping in Beijing he pulled back and the United
States started to get the strong impression that the North Koreans were
no longer interested they objected to the routine military exercises that we
had with South Korea we pulled back from that they did not show up for logistical
meetings in Singapore we were not able to get them on the phone and I think at
that point the u.s. decided that the the North Koreans were simply not
negotiating in good faith and their foreign ministry was saying at the
time that they were a nuclear power and the complete denuclearization was not
their goal after that Paul what was there to talk about well I agree with
that bill but it seems to me that Donald Trump was played in a way by moon
president moon of South Korea and maybe a little bit by the North Korean so I'm
wondering why put this back possibility back on the table I don't know I mean I
I wouldn't have agreed to the meeting it's not the thing that I think cuz my
whole view is that what the North Koreans are doing is trying to get more
time so even if they could delay a meeting you know if secretary Pompeo was
right when he said to the CIA that the North Koreans are within a handful of
months of gaining the capacity to strike America then what you'd want to do is
play for time in these games but I think I think he showed who's insincere about
these talks I actually think he gains from it politically moving out from
moving out of the talks do you agree with that or this has been a setback no
no I think like I said I think that he is showing that you know there they have
to show good faith and if they're not gonna do that then never mind and I
think it's I think it's something that he should be proud of having done so
where does it go from here does it go from here where he's got to restore the
maximum pressure and if this summit doesn't come off and just keep squeezing
them they happy there's a plan B from secretary Madison if I were him I might
be worried about that right if the talks don't military actually if the talks
don't produce anything the North Koreans don't agree the
president has made this a redline they cannot get this capacity and what people
forget is nothing's really change for Japan and South Korea we're talking now
about an attack on the mainland the capacity to do that to the US mainland
and I don't think Kim's gonna give up his weapons lightly all right thank you
all when we come back president Trump opening up a potential new front in the
trade war what his investigation into auto imports could mean for American
consumers and car makers next I think your Auto Workers and your auto
companies in this country are going to be very happy with what's going to
happen
you
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