situation and what our fbi investigators are up against. i'll tell you one thing that i don't think that the folks get enough credit on is the sophistication that these counterintelligence agencies face. >> we are going to continue to cover this. 13 russian nationals indicted. we just heard the announcement from the department of justice. we are pouring through, right now, this indictment, dozens of pages with extraordinary details that show just how sophisticated this effort was. we'll continue our special coverage right now. hi there, i'm brooke baldwin once again live in parkland florida. you're watching breaking coverage of two massive stories breaking right now. one involves this scene right here where 17 lives were cut short by a man who admitted now that he opened fire. the fbi now admits, they got a tip about the shooter, 42 days before the massacre here.

we'll have much more on that breaking news out of protocol that was not followed. >> and i'm jim sciutto here in new york. the other bombshell involves russ russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. special counsel robert mueller has indicted some 13 russian nationals that he, the grand jury alleges played a part. we'll get to brooke and all the breaking details coming out of parkland. stunning developments in the russia investigation. these indictments accuse russian nationals and three russian entities as well of violating u.s. laws to interfere with u.s. elections. it also details a conspiracy operation that worked to support donald trump and harm hillary clinton during the 2016 campaign. let's get right to shimon prokupecz. he has been reading through this indictment. shimon, the big story here is that grand jury finds a legal

standard, enough detail here to back criminal indictments for this interference. >> quite a lot of detail. my gosh, where do we begin? this stunning 37-page indictment lists all sorts of details about how the conspiracy worked, how the operation worked and really gives you an idea of how the fbi, law enforcement was able to infiltrate this operation, the indictment says they believe that it started some time around 2014. and it goes into extreme detail about how the operation worked, that two people traveled to the u.s. to make contact with people, infiltrated, associated with people, americans who did not have anything to do with this but somehow were able to sort of give this appearance that they were here to help these campaigns, to hurt some of these campaigns, helping out in rallies. really stunning detail here in some of this indictment. i want to read one part here, jim, if i can, in terms of

how -- when the folks that were part of this operation, folks in russia learned that the fbi -- they learned that the fbi was on to them by really reading media reports. in one case they even said -- the fbi was able to capture some of this language here and they say we had -- this person said we had a slight crisis here at work. the fbi busted our activity and then they started to cover their tracks. russians trying to cover their tracks. other things that the indictment goes into really has to do with how facebook and twitter, a lot of that reporting, we have done here, about how russians were buying ads. in one of the elements here in this indictment is that the russians posted derogatory information about a number of candidates and by mid 2016, they supported trump and disparaged clinton. they bought ads and communicated with unwitting people tied to the trump campaign. now, rod rosenstein, deputy attorney general, says right now

at least in this indictment there were no americans that were indicted, no charges being brought against anyone here or any americans, but that the investigation, the special counsel investigation is still ongoing. we certainly don't have any indications that the special counsel investigation is ending any time soon. that work is still ongoing. there were people in special counsel's office this week that were interviewed by the special counsel. so that work is still ongoing and we'll see what else comes of it. but certainly, as you said, jim, this is really stunning. extremely detailed information in this indictment that you rarely, rarely see. in a lot of these national security cases, it's not always a -- people are indicted but the government doesn't always make this public. especially with this level of detail because it really shows you the level of sophistication. but also the way law enforcement, our national security folks, the fbi was able to infiltrate this operation.

it's truly gives you an idea of all the work that went into this and, you know, it's stunning. when you read everything here, it really reads like a movie, like a book. the details here, the way they infiltrated this operation, it's truly stunning. >> listen, when the intelligence assessment came out, intel reports don't typically release that level of detail because of the classified nature of the information involved. and at the time that was used as a criticism, folks saying -- particularly trump allies saying there's no detail. how do we really know this is true? you see that detail in this report, right down to trade craft in here, posing as americans. there's also political savviness here in terms of where they focus their efforts. >> that's right, there is. in certain states they wanted to affect the election in certain states. while rod rosenstein says there's no evidence that this occurred here. they did their research and it's clear from this indictment that the russians here did the necessary research to try to

have as much of an impact as they could. and just to get back to what you say about the intelligence estimate. the reason why a lot of that wasn't made public, as we can read in this indictment, is because the operation was still active. the fbi, our intelligence, their intelligence partners, everyone was still working this case and they were not close to bringing it to an end. we know certain details in that intelligence report revealed some of the methods, some of what the fbi was aware of, some of what the cia was aware of, but this indictment, for them to put in -- there had to be a lot of thought of what to put in this indictment because when you start releasing what law enforcement knows, what the fbi knows, then the people you're targeting can identify, can know where you're getting that information. this all has to do with sources and methods. we're always afraid -- the government is always afraid of releasing sources and methods. clearly, they have come to a point where they felt they were comfortable enough to release some of this information,

certainly indicating some of the sources and methods that were used to gather this information. >> yeah. right. and will they do that as they did chinese hackers a number of years ago. they do that with a message in mind to the state involved to russia, to deliver the message saying we know you did this. we know how you did it. we're going to show you how we know you did that, in effect. shimon, thank you very much. i want to go to david chalian. we have a president who, until very recently, never changed his stance before and after the election, called the investigation into russian meddling a hoax. the indictment, the level of detail here blows that entirely out of the water. >> well, it does. the white house would say the president has only called the notion of his campaign or any of his officials colluding with russia the hoax part. >> you know as well as me, he still doesn't buy that yaush interfered in the election. >> totally.

if you look at the totality of the president's aremarks last year -- this is why this moment is so huge. why what rosenstein was presenting is so important overall. because it completely bolsters the fact, the fact that russia was meddling in the u.s. election. the president has only begrudgingly, i think, on two or three occasions gave lip service to the notion, yeah, it's russia or, he had to do a clean-up press conference, you remember, in the fall in vietnam after remarks on the plane, he to go back and say i believe our intelligence agencies. he was not specific about what he believed. what is clear, time and again -- in fact, a think politi-fact made it the lie of the year for 2017. is that the president of the united states constantly tried to undermine this investigation by saying the russian thing, the whole russia story was about a democratic effort. they were upset that they lost the election. what this makes plain and clear today, that is just completely

not a viable response at all. there's nobody that would listen to the president that can see what rosenstein put out today and what mueller is bringing in these indictments, wouldn't get these indictments without evidence that points to it that russia meddled in the election. any dispute of that from the president should be readily dismissed by people listening. look where his department of justice is on this today. >> no question. in the midst of this, a couple of weeks ago, the white house missed an opportunity, as mandated by both houses of congress, to impose further sanctions on russia for its meddling in the election. can the white house continue to drag its feet on that in light of the detail laid out here? >> well, far be it from me. the white house can certainly try and do that. i do think that with this level of detail and as the public learns more and more about just how in-depth this entire process was from this foreign adversary, trying to meddle with the most

core, small d democratic function that is the very essence of america, when the american people learn more and more just the reaches of that and how intense that effort was, you may see some pressure ratchet up on the hill with the white house to make sure that more action be -- take place here, jim whachlt is so important, sanctions is sort of a backwards looking thing, right, for activity that has been done. but because the president so easily combines russia's meddling in the election with somehow making him an illegitimate president -- which is not the case -- the fact that he combines the two and can't separate them and calls the whole russia thing a hoax, because of it, has prevented him from taking the leadership role of setting the country in a position to ensure that this stops and doesn't happen again, going forward. >> even as his own cia director said just last week that russia is interfering now. and he has every expectation that they will interfere in 2018

and 2020. i believe we have carrie cordero with us as well. carrie, you have the advantage of being both a former counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security. you've been inside the justice department and i believe you worked for the director of national intelligence. you've been in the intel community as well as the doj. for folks at home who might look at this and say, well, it's the doj. you know, there's a lot of politics involved in this. how do i really believe they've got the goods on the russians, et cetera. you know what goes into an indictment like this, what level of detail is necessary. describe some of that as you look at this indictment here. >> sure. jim, this was an enormous -- this would have started as an enormous counter intelligence investigation that then expanded into a major complex criminal investigation. and that would have started far before the special counsel was ever appointed, far before jim

comey was ever fired as fbi director. this was a long counterintelligence investigation that would have been led by the fbi but also informed by intelligence of other agencies within the intelligence community that it would have gotten foreign intelligence reporting and shared that information back with the fbi. and what they discovered was that there was a conspiracy being led and supported by the russian government through russian nationals and russian front companies to influence u.s. democratic processes and our elections. and the investigation itself goes back to at least a couple of years before the 2016 election. these investigations would have been conducted by nonpartisan, not political appointees, nonpartisan investigators and intelligence lawyers would have informed techniques that they used, whether that was surveillance, obtaining records, all that information and analysis would come together. and then that investigation would have moved forward towards

developing what became potential criminal charges which now we're seeing brought in terms of a criminal indictment led by the special counsel's office. but this would have involved many agents, different field offices, intel community sourcing and this was a big enterprise investigation. >> no question. carrie, please, everyone, stand by. we're getting our first reaction from one of those russian indicted as well as the russian government. this is cnn special coverage. stay with us. mike and i are both veterans, both served in the navy.

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welcome back. we continue on our breaking news story that robert mueller has

indicted 13 russians for interfering in the 2016 u.s. presidential election. new developments now, including reaction from one of those 13 indicted. fred pleitgen has some of those details. >> reporter: vast empire of those companies, the troll agency that is part of the indictment is a key part and he has come out with a statement very, very quickly, i might add. this was only minutes after the indictment was announced. i quote, americans are very impressionable people, he says. they see what they want to see. i have great respect for them. i'm not at all upset that i'm on this list. if they want to see the devil, let them see one. obviously, in many ways, dismissing the fact that he's on that list. i would also say that when he says he's not sad to be on that list, that is something that seems to be true. one of the things we've been learning that the new

oligarches, as they call them, one of the main things they try to do is get better relations with vladimir putin. if you look at the things that the internet research agency has done, it has made him more important to vladimir putin. now linked to several other companies, security companies that deal in syria as well. for him, the meddling in the u.s. election in 2016 has been more than a success. when he says he's not sad to be on that list, that's certainly something that we can very much believe, jim. >> no question. i understand the russian government is replying as well. >> yeah. yeah. also, very quickly, we were quite surprised. we texted the kremlin and foreign ministry. a response now on the facebook page of a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry. she is someone who is known of to comment quite quickly on these matters. she calls the indictment of the 13 absurd. that is a quote from her. 13 people intervened in the

election in the u.s.? 13 against billion dollar budgets of special services, she said. not exactly clear what she means about special services against intelligence, counterintelligence against the latest developments and technology. absurd? yes. she finishes her statement saying, quote, this is modern american political reality. it's kind of the things we've been hearing from russian officials over the past couple of weeks, months. in fact, ever since all of this with the election meddling came up. they believe this is what they call a witch hunt against russia under way in the united states. very quickly, it does show, jim -- i want to add that -- that they take this very, very seriously for them on a friday night at this hour to be commenting this fast. >> the president himself has called this investigation a witch hunt. interesting common phraseology. fred pleitgen in moscow for us, thank you very much. to jeremy diamond at the white house. i understand the president, jeremy, has been finding out about this news as well?

>> reporter: that's right, jim. there has been no official statement yet from the white house. senior white house official did tell me earlier that the president was briefed this morning at the white house by the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein and fbi director chris wray. clearly they wanted to make sure that the president was fully apprised of this, that these indictments would not be surprised to him as some of these indictments from mueller's office has been to the white house in the past. we are expected to see the president as he departs for florida in about an hour. so it is possible that he could comment himself on this and we could possibly get a statement from the white house later on, of course. there are two points in this indictment that it is possible the white house could seize on, that rod rosenstein made these points, of course, with regard to the fact that no individual associated with the trump campaign wittingly colluded with these russians because they concealed their identity. that is something they will seize on. rod rosenstein making clear that

there's no evidence in this indictment of any impact on the outcome of the election. that is not typically something that the fbi and the justice department have actually looked into. if there are two points the white house will try to seize on, those could be it. >> jeremy diamond at the white house. i want to return to our experts he here. shimon, if i could go to you first with what jeremy highlighted. there were contacts between these indicted russians and people tied to the trump campaign but that that was unwitting on those tied to the trump campaign. because we know that part of robert mueller's investigation is as to whether there was any intentional, witting collusion between trump aides and russia, based on this, can we draw any conclusions about where that line of inquiry is? does that, perhaps, indicate that that line of inquiry is not bearing fruit or should we look at this separately? >> i think we should look at it separately. i don't think we should read too

much into that fact from this indictment because rod rosenstein did say. we don't know. no one really -- this is the first time we're really hearing anything from rod rosenstein on this. he did say twice, i believe, that in this indictment there's no indication that any americans had knowledge of this. we don't know what else the special counsel is working on, whether that's still part of the investigation. yes. in this indictment, as we've said, it lists -- goes into such great detail. one of them, it says that russians, who adopted an american -- american personas, that they, themselves, created, that they wrote to campaign officials, to trump campaign officials in some instances about rallies they were organizing. as we said, keep in mind, they were unwitting participants, perhaps people who did not know that these were russians working for the russian government,

trying to infiltrate the election. and we've heard this term a lot, jim, right? as we've been covering this story and talking to sources about unwitting. there was this idea that carter page was unwitting, papadopoulos was unwitting. it's a key word that a lot of intelligence officials, fbi officials have used have with us. i don't think we can definitively say at this point, from this indictment, whether that part, whether there were any witting participants is complete, if that investigation is complete. >> fact is -- in fact, as we know of one witting encounter, if that's even the word but that is the trump tower meeting when we know senior trump officials, including the president's son-in-law and his son took a meeting, knowing that there was a russian promising dirt on hillary clinton. author of a book on fbi and robert mueller, garret, i wonder what message you took, if there was a message, to see the deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein, who we know the president has discussed, thought about firing, not happy with his

management of the mueller investigation, of him coming out here, the deputy ag, attaching his name and face to this announcement, indicting russians for election interference. is there significance in that? >> i think there's a tremendous amount of significance in that, jim. what we saw today is an indictment unprecedented in american history. this is a clear statement that america's main foreign adversary meddled in the heart of the democratic process extensively and expansively. that's the message that the government needs to be taking and engage on this issue.

and now detailed pages, we have public knowledge of what that campaign has looked like in the past and what it might look like going forward. >> great point, garret. carrie, shimon, stand by. there is, a reminder, another breaking news story in that horrible school massacre in florida. we're now learning that the fbi failed to act on a recent tipped that warned of this shooter's threats to be a school shooter. more on that after this. and with ancestrydna liveson sale for just $69, now is the time to discover yours. you can find out where you get... ...your precision...

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welcome back. you're watching cnn special coverage here live in parkland, florida. i'm brooke baldwin. we'll get you back, i promise, to the very latest on indictments in russian meddling. let's get you to the mass shooting in stoneman douglas that claimed the lives of 17 and injured many more others. the fbi's tip line received a call of concern from a person close to the shooter on january 5th. that was 42 days before the shooting happened. the fbi understands the gravity of the oversight with the fbi director christopher wray issuing a statement himself. brian todd and evan perez. first to you. you're in the gunman's previous neighborhood here in parkland. we're talking about a tipster calling in this line on january

5th. what exactly was he or she warning the fbi of? >> this tip had horrible and very chilling detail. it almost seems to predict what the shooter was going to do. as you mentioned, the tip got to the fbi on january 5th of this year, 42 days before the shooting. according to the bureau, the tip spoke of the shooter's gun ownership, his desire to kill people, his erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting. the information should have been assessed as a potential threat to life, according to the fbi, but the fbi now admitting that information was never passed on to its miami field office, brooke. that is the horribly disturbing part of all of this. here is a statement from fbi director christopher wray today. quote, we are still investigating the facts. i am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. it's up to all americans to be

vigilant and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly. we have spoken with victims and families and deeply regret the additional pain this causes. all those affected by this horrific tragedy. all the men and women of the fbi are dedicated to keeping american people safe and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it. that is a dramatic admission, a horrible admission for the fbi to have to make, brooke, less than -- only about 48 hours after this shooting occurred. it is really a stunning development today. >> how, evan perez, you're our justice correspondent, have all these great law enforcement sources. how did they explain -- i'm just thinking of the parents i've talked to here, you know, in parkland. when they hear that protocol just wasn't followed, when someone was ringing the alarm bells really loudly on january 5th, how was protocol not followed? >> you know, brooke, it's

insplik yai inexplicable. there's no explanation from the fbi at this point. it's a massive, massive screw-up. the very nature of what we've been told by the fbi since 9/11, really, is see something, say something. and in this case, you know, the fbi just simply dropped the ball. the fact is that this was enough information -- the person who received this tip, who processed this tip from the public, could have simply entered in the computer system the name that was provided and they would have been able to see the previous tip that had been received by someone who said that he had left a disturbing message on a youtube video. they would have been able to see that there had been a record, perhaps, and then they would have been able to go find this person and go talk to him. they might have been able to see that in the past year he has purchased as many as five firearms, up to five firearms have now been tracked to this one person.

they might have been able to at least make contact with him and see what he was -- what he looked like and how he behaved. they would have been able, perhaps, to see that there were 39 police calls to the home of this individual. all of those things, they didn't do, simply because someone did not pass this information to the right place, to the miami field office. they never had a chance to investigate this. and this is a devastating thing. we've been covering the best of the fbi. the fbi was able to infiltrate this internet agency that carried out the interference in the 2016 election. that's the best of the fbi. this is the worst, unfortunately, for them. this is devastating and the explanation that the fbi director has to give to these grieving families i can't even begin to explain that. >> evan, thank you so much, and brian todd. my next guest is a teacher here

at douglas, being called a hearing, unlocking her classroom to shield a group of students as the shots rang out. >> as we were running, we were actually running toward the freshman building and thank god for a janitor that stopped us. >> what did the janitor say? >> guys, you can't go this way. go this way. they funneled us in the culinary cooking classroom, 40 students if not more. because of the heroic actions and the split second decision, 30 seconds, she saved my life and easily 40 others there. >> ashley, thank you so much for being with me. that was one of your students talking about how you helped save his and so many others' lives. i know everyone here is heartbroke heartbroken. >> take me to that day. >> it was the end of any other normal day.

i was closing up my door and as i was moving the doorstop out from my door i heard two pops and two senior boys started running at me with white faces screaming there's a shooter, there's a shooter. after that i heard a multitude of other pops. we had just gone through a drill training and everything to go along with that. after previously being through a live action shooter my previous school i immediately went to the first door that i went to, my first point of entry, which was the door that faces the freshman building and as i opened it and stuck half my body out to lock and make sure the door was secure, i just saw so many terrified children screaming and running from the building. and that's not what's in the drills. and i immediately just -- i said okay, this is not a joke. then it came over the loud speaker code red, code red. i secured that door, ran back to the other side and any student i saw running in that direction i grabbed them and started screaming, get in here, get in here. any student running the opposite

direction i was yelling at them, keep running. don't stop. keep running. >> thank you, by the way, for even being a teacher. my mom was a teacher. i'm still could gnizant that soy people don't have the resources but you had run through the drills, code red and code yellow. you had run through the piece and get political. i want to ask you about that. we were standing here. you said i've been a registered republican since i was 16 years of age. don't take away my guns. >> pretty much. i spent the majority of yesterday listening to a lot of my liberal friends. as a teacher i have a lot of liberal friends. you know, i've always been a registered republican, since i was 16. that's my family background. i have a lot of conservative views because i'm a christian. in going through that and just living through everything that i went there, i used to have the standpoints of, yes, it's okay. we need to get these people

help, focus on mental health and make the gun laws maybe a little stricter. >> what's changed? >> after what i experienced and just hearing the rounds go off in such succession and watching those terrified cases come at me and knowing you're the adult am charge and not only are you dealing with your life but as a mother, these are all my kids. >> of course. >> i just -- for me it's not enough. something has to be done. you have to have laws that take the catalyst out of the equation. assault rifles and semi assaults. >> semi automatic. >> they should not be allowed to be purchased. >> your mind has been changed. >> there's no need for them. >> you told me you voted for trump. >> i did. >> the president is coming down to palm beach, not far from where we're standing and talks about how he wants to visit with folks down here. what do you want to hear from him? what do you want him to do? >> i want him to put into place and get these legislators to start working together to fix the problem. take the catalyst out of the equation. it's not enough to say --

>> what's the catalyst? >> the assault rifle. >> semi automatic weapons? >> semi automatic and assault rifles. nobody needs to own one. when they say they're using it for target practice, what are you targeting? it's no need. it's a power struggle for them to fire it off. it is everybody's god given right to defend themselves and have weapons but there are some weapons in this world that our children do not need access to. >> thank you for everything you did in helping those kids, ashley. i'm so who are sorry you had to go through that. i appreciate you standing next to me and using your voice. >> thank you. >> back to our other breaking story this afternoon, this huge development in the russia investigation. special counsel robert mueller indicting 13 russians for meddling in the presidential election. stay with me.

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justice department. three russian companies also under indictment. the charges? meddling in the 2016 u.s. election to, quote, help zbrmp harm hillary clinton. here is deputy attorney general rod rosenstein as he laid out part of what the doj believes happened. >> russians also recruited and paid real americans to engage in political activities, promote political campaigns and stage political rallies. the defendants and co-conspiratorer es pretended t grassroots activists. according to the indictment, americans did not know they were communicating with russians. >> carl bernstein is, of course, part of the washington post team that won a pulitzer prize for its watergate coverage. cnn political analyst and author. carl, how big a deal is this news? >> this is huge in several ways. first of all, the substance of the indictment, sweeping and goes to the case of what the

russians did. it's very specific, very granular and very convincing, in a way that donald trump cannot dismiss this, nor can his accoladelcoho accol accolytes. trump has been looking, even in the past week, i'm told by people in the white house, for ways to fire mueller, bury this investigation and certainly as a first act to get rid of rosenstein, which he has been complaining about for months and months. here we have rod rosenstein going on national tv with perhaps the most significant announcement of the investigation yet. and being a very responsible, convincing face, he's just himself an insurance policy in that job, one would think, as has the continuation of the

mueller investigation. it is very hard for these republicans who have gone along with this business of witch hunt to continue to do so after this. >> you say witch hunt. the russian government used exactly that phrase as well, responding to this. that's been a consistent response. can the president still, i'm going to say not credibly dismiss this as a hoax but walk out there, tweet and say to his supporters and others that the whole russian investigation is an excuse by democrats to make up for their loss? >> he probably will. he has done in consistently. remember, he is also playing to his base. his base is his insurance against something awful happening to him in the way of impeachment. let's be clear about this. republicans who have gone along with him on the hill are afraid of that base. they now have to start rethinking as a result of this, how long can they go along blindly with donald trump saying

this is all a rouse? it does not preclude more indictments. it talks about, yes, unwitting association in this instance. it does not preclude anything further. and what we are seeing, as mueller continues to build cases, is that incrementally, he is making a picture that we can see suggests an awful lot of interface between people in the trump campaign and russians beginning with the trump tower meeting that his son is at. >> right. and that was a wit iting -- >> you look at the political savvy that these russian operatives showed. they turned up and focused their efforts on purple states,

colorado, virginia, florida, swing states. they used issues which they knew, it seems, and we know had political effect. depressed minority voting, alleged voter fraud by the democratic party. >> there's a long history with this type of activity, including with the yunited states in the cold war. united states and russia became adept at throwing elections in foreign countries. italy, we propped up the christian democrats, social democrats for years and years against the communists. this is an old cold war technique. and, indeed, the same old cold warriors are in charge in russia today. it's not surprising they're so good at this. we would be good at this, too, if we still did it. i'm convinced and i think most people who cover the national security bureaucracies think we went out of this business a number of years ago.

>> let me ask you, because there have been other developments in this russian investigation. cnn reported yesterday that rick gates, former deputy campaign manager, known coffee boy for the trump campaign, appears to be moving toward a plea deal, which would mean pleading guilty to a crime and cooperating with investigators. this yaush probe is coming to an end, petering out, going nowhere. yet in the last two days you have a third trump adviser, in effect, going states evidence and you have these indictments now. >> i don't think petering out is at all the situation. it might be hurdling down the tracks in a way that it could conclude with a date final perhaps that's in sight down the road, after trials. >> do you sense that from any of your reporting? >> no, no. >> do you see light at the end of the tunnel? >> no, i don't. but in terms of will mueller bring a series of more

indictments that are somewhat inclusiclue conclusive? we don't know. mueller's shop is so tight. they're not leaking. most of what we know are from lawyers, among those who are possibly facing mueller's guns. but you also can't underestimate the importance of rick gates and the fact that if he pleads, gates was with donald trump through much of the campaign. he and trump spoke consistently, frequently. he was paul manafort's partner, both am what the special prosecutor says is a long time of crime as well as his partner in the campaign. so his degree of knowledge -- incidentally, mueller is a straight shooter. if -- i think we see from what rosenstein said today. if there is exculpatory evidence about the president of the united states and he did not collude, i think mueller is going to give it to us straight up and say it up front and so

will rosenstein. but the way this investigation is going, the idea of saying, quote, there is no collusion here -- look, we are seeing evidence of a conspiracy. who was witting, unwitting in that conspiracy, we don't know yet. but mueller's indictments are pointing in a certain direction around people in the trump orbit and family. >> carl bernstein, thank you very much. we've been covering this story, really, since it started. >> indeed. >> imagine we have some more work to do. another major breaking news story right now, of course, the school massacre in florida. we're now learning that the fbi failed to act on a recent tip that warned of this shooter's threats in advance. your heart doesn't only belong ♪to you.

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i'm brooke baldwin. we're here live in parkland, florida. we're getting breaking news in the wake of the shooting, where we've been reporting that protocol was not followed. we know someone close to the shooter called in to this 800-fbi tip line on january 5th, warned them that this shooter -- i say shooter because he has admitted to doing this -- warned of his behavior, erratic behavior, wanted to -- his desire to kill, worried that he could be capable and wanted to commit mass murder like at douglas high school behind me. and now the news is that from the governor of florida, governor rick scott, he wants the director of the fbi to resign because all of that information was not relayed to the miami fbi field office. let me read the last paragraph for you from the governor of florida. we constantly promote see

something, say something. and a courageous person did just that to the fbi and the fbi failed to act. see something, say something is an incredibly important tool and people must have confidence in the follow through from law enforcement. the fbi director needs to resign. two voices i want to bring in, former fbi supervisory special agent josh campbell and cnn legal analyst paige payne. we got that acknowledgement of the screw-up from the fbi director but now the governor wanting christopher wray to resign. what do you make of that? >> with respect to the statement and the review under way right now by the fbi, obviously, it's heartbreaking. it's tragic. it's something they're going to look back and do an after action of what happened, how did we miss this? the fbi knows, it has a long story, even proud history. but they know in order to maintain credibility as an institution they not only have to announce successes but they

also have to step up whenever mistakes are made and say we have something that, you know, we did wrong. we need to be held accountable. i think that's what we saw today with the statement. with respect to the director resigning i understand right now in florida, hearts are broken. hearts are broken inside the fbi. i can only imagine what the governor is going through right now. i don't think this is a time for anyone to be thinking about resignation or stepping down. i think the focus should be on doing a review, an investigation, find out what happened, what was missed. >> clearly, what was missed, significant information wasn't relayed to this fbi miami field office. page pate if you are a parent of a child here that died at douglas high school is there any fallout of a mistake made like this? >> there may be. it's difficult to sue anybody in the federal government. they have official immunity. generally you can't file a

lawsuit because someone failed to do their job. but if there's a protocol in place and someone with the fbi did not follow that protocol they may individually be liable for what happened. i agree it's premature to call for the director's resignation at this point. i understand the governor is having to deal with a lot of pain but also political fallout perhaps for his support or opposition to gun control issues and he's trying to point the finger at someone else. i do applaud the fbi for coming out with this, as early as they did, and try iing to investigat it. but if somebody screwed up, they need to find that person. they need to address that individual. and they need to fix the problem. >> okay. page and josh, thank you so much. again i'm brooke baldwin here in parkland, florida. we'll continue our special coverage both, of course, of this story here in florida and breaking news out of washington. and i'm pamela brown i