the f.b.i. the president never wavered during the fiasco of these hearings and the false reporting of the left-wing national media. today the president declared comey is not only a liar, but a confessed leaker as well. he held a rose garden news conference in which said he will be able to testify under oath that he never asked comey for a loyalty pledge. that he never asked comey to drop the investigation into former national security advisor general michael flynn. fox news chief white house correspondent, john roberts, with our report. john: there was a lot of anticipation about what the president would say about the testimony on capitol hill. it turns out he said a lot. in the rose garden president trump spoke for the first time in public about james comey's testimony on capitol hill. he said he would be happy to tell the details of their meetings to robert mueller, under oath. the president said he never asked comey to shut down the investigation. >> i didn't say that. >> he lied about that.

the nature of the f.b.i. and the nature of its work requires that it not be the subject of political consideration and, on top of that, you have the russia investigation itself is vital because of the threat, and i know i should have said this earlier, but it's obvious, if any americans were part of helping the russians do that to us, that is a very big deal, and i'm confident that, if that is the case, director mueller will find that evidence. >> finally, the president tweeted that james cokie better hope that there are no hopes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. was that rather unsubtle attempt to attempt to intimidate you from testifying and anyone else who seriously crosses his path of not doing it? >> i'm not going to sit here and try to interpret the presidentas tweets. to me its major impact as occurred to me in the middle of the night, holy cow, there are tapes, and if there are tapes, it's not just my word against his on the direction to get rid of the flynn investigation. >>

the f.b.i.'s washington field office. i'm here to provide an investigative update on the shooting that occurred this morning. i would like to thank the alexandria police department, u.s. capitol police, and medical response teams who responded to the scene this morning for their quick and decisive actions. actually saving lives. i remind you that this is an active investigation and details continue to unfold. i stressed this earlier and i'm going to underscore it now. that the f.b.i. is not going to talk about the character or nature in which we are investigating this case other than to say we continue to work this as an active investigation and an ongoing matter. there has been some confusion about the injuries involved. our statements sent out earlier today, this afternoon actually, identified the number of victims and their injuries. let me just review that quickly for you. five individuals were shot. a congressman, a united states capitol police officer, a congressional staffer, a lobbyist a

the former f.b.i. director gave his highly anticipated testimony before the senate intelligence committee earlier today. in his opening remarks, he said president trump lied to the american people when he said agents lost confidence in him. >> although the law required no reason at all to fire the f.b.i. director, the administration chose to defame me, and more importantly the f.b.i., by saying the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies, plain and simple. and i'm so sorry the f.b.i. workforce had to hear them, and i'm so sorry the american people were told this. i work every day at the f.b.i. to help make that great organization better. charlie: comey also revealed he turned over memos documenting his conversations with president trump to robert mueller. it is the first public suggestion the investigation will look into trump's firing of comey. during the testimony, president trump spoke at a meeting of faith leaders a

leadership, the f.b.i. lost thousands upon thousands of years of experience. so we keep having people get killed around the country, people wonder how did the f.b.i. not pick this up? how did the f.b.i. not recognize this? well, i recall when i got out of law school and i was an assistant d.a., i would see criminal defense attorneys and i would think in my head, i would know in my head, i knew a whole lot more law than they did. heck i had one moot court, won a trip to london, england, baylor law school, won an award for best brief award. won -- for that i had a partner. won an award for law review article on torts that i did. you know, gee. i was coming up against lawyers that hadn't won awards in law school like i had. and so i'm going, gee this ought to be pretty easy. they're not near as smart as i am. when it comes to the law. and what i learned rather quickly in courtroom work is that knowledge of the law is extremely helpful but experience is even more helpful. getting a feel and an understanding of

, looking the f.b.i. director in the eye and saying, "i hope you let this go." i think if agents, as good as they are, heard the president of the united states did that, there's a real riskave chilling effect on their work. >> reporter: president trump has disputed comey's account, even tweeting last month, "james comey better hope there are no taims of our conversations." >> lordy, i hope there are tapes. >> reporter: comey says that tweet three days after he was fired lead him to take an unusual step. he asked a friend, columbia law professor, dan richman, to share the conterchts of his memos with a "new york times" reporter. >> i thought that might prompt the apoivment a special counsel. >> so why didn't you give those to somebody yourself rather than give them through a third party? >> because i was worried the media was camping at the end of my driveway at that point and i was actually gowght of town with my wife to hide and i worried it would be like feeding seagulls at the beach if it was i who gav

the f.b.i. and the department of justice needed to be careful to follow department policy regarding appropriate contacts with the white house. mr. comey had served in the department for better than two decades and i was confident that he understood and would abide by the well-established rules with limited conversations with the white house. that's what is so important to control. my comments encouraged him to do just that and indeed as i understand it, he did that. our rules on proper communications between the department and the white house have been in place for white house. mr. comey well knew them. and i thought and assumed correctly that he complied with them. so i'll finish with this. i recused myself from any investigation into the campaign for president, but i did not recuse myself from defending my honor against false allegations. at all times throughout the course of the campaign, the confirmation process and since becoming attorney general, i have dedicated myself to the highest stan

>> well, the director of the f.b.i. is conducting investigations into national security issues, and the president should not be viewed as trying to, in any way, influence those kinds of investigations. and so for that reason, at least the approach in the past with other presidents, has been to make very sure that the president does not have that kind of one-on-one discussion with the director of the f.b.i., particularly when the director is conducting a very sensitive investigation. that just is not done. >> pelley: what did you see in the testimony today that related to the charge of obstruction of justice? >> there's not much question that the president will be a focus of an investigation by the heecial counsel as to whether or not there was obstruction of justice. the testimony by director comey raised at least a pattern in the meetings and discussions with the director, that raises the issue of whether or not he was trying to influence or obstruct that investigation. that will be the subject, i think, of the special

the f.b.i. agents work for him. that in and of itself is a form misconduct that could result in his termination. you can't have a special counsel's office running an anti-presidential campaign on their own. so now he's got a leaking problem just like his buddy, mr. comey. let's not forget mueller and comey are pals. so there is a conflict of interest there. this is a mess. lou: it's clearly an attempt to subvert the government of the united states as well as the administration of donald j. trump, president of the united states. what are his options? how should he deal with it? this has reached crisis proportions without a doubt. >> this is a rough assessment. it's not nice to say. but frankly the left wants the president impeached, and if it could jail members of his family they would go for that, too. it's just that vicious. it's just that dirty. the president is faced with a new attorney general to eliminate the conflict of interest with respect to attorney general sessions or exercises his au

the f.b.i. agents work for him. that in and of itself is a form misconduct that could result in his termination. you can't have a special counsel's office running an anti-presidential campaign on their own. so now he's got a leaking problem just like his buddy, mr. comey. let's not forget mueller and comey are pals. so there is a conflict of interest there. this is a mess. lou: it's clearly an attempt to subvert the government of the united states as well as the administration of donald j. trump, president of the united states. what are his options? how should he deal with it? this has reached crisis proportions without a doubt. >> this is a rough assessment. it's not nice to say. but frankly the left wants the president impeached, and if it could jail members of his family they would go for that, too. it's just that vicious. it's just that dirty. the president is faced with a new attorney general to eliminate the conflict of interest with respect to attorney general sessions or exercises his au

the f.b.i.? >> there was a clear view of mine and of deputy attorney general rosenstein as he set out at some length in his memoranda which i awe dawfnt adopted and e president there were problems there and it was my best judgment that a fresh start at the f.b.i. was the appropriate thing to do. and when i said that to the president as something i had adhered to, deputy rosenstein's letter dealt with a number of things. when mr. comey declined the clinton prosecution, that was really a usurpation of the authority of the federal prosecutors in the department of justice. it was a stunning development. the f.b.i. is the investigationive team. they don't decide prosecution policies. so that was a thunderous thing. he also commented at some length on the dec c of declamation of clinton. policies are you decline and don't talk about it. there were other thing that happened that indicated to me a lack of december plunge and it caused -- discipline and it caused controversy on both sides of the ail ail a

the nature of the f.b.i. and the nature of its work requires that it not be the subject of political consideration and, on top of that, you ha investigation itself is vital because of the threat, and i know i should have said this earlier, but it's obvious, if any americans were part of helping the russians do that to us, that is a very big deal, and i'm confident that, if that is the case, director mueller will find that evidence. >> finally, the president tweeted that james cokie better hope that there are no hopes of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press. was that rather unsubtle attempt to attempt to intimidate you from testifying and anyone else who seriously crosses his path of not doing it? >> i'm not going to sit here and try to interpret the presidentas tweets. to me its major impact as occurred to me in the middle of the night, holy cow, there are tapes, and if there are tapes, it's not just my word against his on the direction to get rid of the flynn investigation. >>nk senator mc

of the f.b.i. and the president of the united states that give you flavor and texture and information about what went into the decision to fire mr. comey, which is the obstruction in this case. >> woodruff: carrie cordero, what about just specifically on those three sets of answers that mr. comey gave, i mean, should we read something nefarious into that? >> i do have a slightly different take, which is that the number of times that former director comey was referring to items that could not be discussed in open session eludes to the fact that there is an ongoing investigation, and there's a whole bunch of classified stuff and classified investigation that's taking place that he could only feel comfortable and would only be appropriate to discuss in a closed session, and what was not part of the clips, but what he also said in his testimony today is that unequivocally there was russian interference in the election, and with all this soap opera related become and forth that we focus on so much, i fe

that the role of the f.b.i. director, and the reason why want statute was changed so that want f.b.i. director's term of years is 10 years, designed to cut across administrations to ensure that the president who appointed the director, that the director would outlast the tenure of that president. and so director comey, i think, is trying to explain in this awkward context why he'll be honest, not disloyal in some sense, but loyal ultimately to the constitution and the country. >> woodruff: well, now i want to turn, both of you, to this-- i think it was their next meeting, february the 14th, in a meeting in the oval office. now, this time it was with the president, the vice president, the attorney general, several other senior administration officials. at the end of that meeting, the president asked everyone to leave, except for comey. and according to mr. comey's statement, mr. trump turned back to the subject of general michael flynn, who had been fired just the day before, and he said: matt apuzzo, how does th

the f.b.i. by saying that the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies, plain and simple. >> one more nugget from yesterday's testimony. you also heard the former f.b.i. director say that the president essentially tried to lean on him to get him to stop the probe into his former national security advisor mike flynn. that's the charge the white house denies. >> bill: what more can you add about the comment on vindication. >> mark kasowitz made it clear the president didn't do a lot of what the f.b.i. director said and made a forceful and compelling case if anything we learned a lot in what the former director had to say during the hearing, among those things, that a, the president is not the subject of the russia investigation. he never asked comey to stop the investigation and he never demanded comey's loyalty to him. however, he did accuse him of leaking those private memos again detailing his recollection of con

at the time of your departure from the f.b.i., was the f.b.i. able to confirm any criminal allegations contained in the steel document? >> i don't think that's a question i can answer in an open setting because it goes into the details of the investigation. >> director, the term we hear most often is collusion. when people are describing possible links between americans and russian government, entities related to the interference in our election would you say it's normal for foreign government to reach out to members of an incoming administration? >> yes. >> at what point does the normal contact cross the line in an attempt to recruit agents or influence or spies? >> difficult to say in the abstract. it depends upon the context whether there is an effort to keep it covert. what the nature of the request made of the american by the foreign government are. it is a judgment call based on a whole lot of facts. >> at what point would that recruitment become a counter intelligence threat to our country? >> again, difficult to answer in the abstract bu

you called the f.b.i. to rush into john ashcroft's hospital room to stop president bush and save the nation. you spend a lot of time talking about your emotions. >> it makes me mildly nauseous. >> it give me an uneasy feeling. >> i was stunned. i was honestly concerned. it caused a whole lot of personal pain for me. judge jeanine: was the job too much for you, jim? j why not say, are you ordering me toned an investigation? you might even have said this is wrong, i can't do this. like that time when loretta lynch asked to you lie to the country and not say hillary was under investigation and instead use the parallel language the clintons did? you did so and you were dishon yeast with the american people. even though you knew loretta lynch was violating justice department ethics by meeting the husband of the target of a longstanding investigation. you weren't along with calling it a matter and not an investigation. but quote it wasn't a hill dying on. man, are you dramatic. how many times were you pressures

and i'm so sorry the f.b.i. workforce had to hear them, and i'm so sorry the american people were told this. i work every day at the f.b.i. to help make that great organization better. charlie: comey also revealed he turned over memos documenting his conversations with president trump to robert mueller. it is the first public suggestion the investigation will look into trump's firing of comey. during the testimony, president trump spoke at a meeting of faith leaders and politicians in washington and pushed back against the media and his political opponents. president trump: they will lie, they will obstruct, they will spread their hatred and the prejudice. but we will not back down from because, ass right the bible tells us -- [applause] president trump: we know the truth will prevail. charlie: for the latest on this developing story, here is a report from the cbs evening news. >> i was concerned he might lie about the nature of the meeting so i thought it was important to document. >> he told them it was the pr

the f.b.i. director he fired last month. comey told the senate intelligence committee that the president directed him to drop the f.b.i.'s investigation of former national security advisor michael flynn. well, today, mr. trump said comey lied under oath, but he insisted comey's testimony still proved that there was no collusion between anyone in his campaign and russia and that the president himself did not obstruct justice. our coverage begins with margaret brennan. >> president trump said he would be happy to speak with special counsel robert mueller about his conversations with james comey. >> i would be glad to tell him exactly what i just told you. >> it would be a significant moment in an investigation that has gone from examining the trump campaign's ties to russia to whether the president possibly committed obstruction of justice. the president denied comey's accusation e pressured the then f.b.i. director to drop the investigation of michael flynn. the president also said he did not ask

president talk to the head of the f.b.i. about something sensitive? >> well, in other circumstances, if, for example, the f.b.i. director was at the white house to give a counter-terrorism briefing on some really substantive matter, sure, but there would be other aides in the room, too. that type of briefing wouldn't take place just with the president and the f.b.i. director, but those are the types of scenarios that would be more routine types of meetings between a president and an f.b.i. director. if it was some substantive type of briefing. >> woodruff: keep all this in mind, because we want to turn to's aspect of what came out in today's testimony. more than one senator asked about the firing of james comey. sessions testified that he did not talk to the f.b.i. director about his job performance before the president dismissed him. he did detail for california democrat dianne feinstein the issues he had with comey, but he declined to answer a later question, from maine independent senator angus king. >> we had problems th

a critical part of the f.b.i.'s mission. you got the right person in bob mueller to lead it. it's an important piece of work. senator wyden: vice president pens -- pence was the head of the transition. to your knowledge was he aware of the concerns about michael flynn prior to or during general flynn's tenure as national ecurity advisor? director comey: i don't -- you're asking including up to the time when flynn was forced to resign? my understanding is that he was. i'm trying to remember where i get that understanding from. i think from acting attorney general yates. senator wyden: former acting attorney general yates testified the concerns about general flynn were discussed with the intelligence community. would that have included anyone at the c.i.a. or dan coats' office, the d.n.i.? director comey: i would assume, yes. senator wyden: michael flynn resigned four days after attorney general sessions was sworn in. do you know if the attorney general was aware of the concerns about michael flynn during that period

we know the f.b.i. has a dossier compiled by a former british spy that had a lot of allegations about what the russians may have on trump. we know that itself was not enough to prompt an investigation of trump. if that were to happen, it would mean there would have to be new information that would lead f.b.i. investigators to believe there was more there on what the russians have on trump. charlie: is it your impression the dossier is hardly relevant because of its questions about its origins? >> i think the dossier was initially dismissed as a very salacious document that had pretty off-the-wall accusations in it. my sense from talking to folks at the f.b.i. since then is that they did not necessarily dismiss it and they actually were able to corroborate significant portions of it right off the bat based on intelligence they had. these were not the most salacious parts of the report. it was more basic stuff about things going on inside of russia and russia's attempts to meddle in the election. a certai

to drop the f.b.i. investigation of mr. trump's former national security adviser. comey says mr. trump described the f.b.i.'s russia investigation as a cloud and asked comey what comey could do to lift it. the testimony, based on comey's notes, also confirms the president's statement that he was not under investigation. chief congressional correspondent nancy cordes begins our coverage. >> reporter: comey's seven-page opening statement describes his conversations with the president in detail. "seven days after the inauguration," comey says, "the president invited me to dinner. it turned out to be just the two of us. my instincts toll me that the one-on-one setting meant that the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship." "sure enough," comey says, "the president said, 'i need loyalty. i expect loyalty.' i didn't move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. we simply looked at each

the reason that the term of the f.b.i. director is 10 years is because it was a signal from congress that even though the f.b.i. director does serve at the pleasure of the president, and mr. comey was clear about that in his testimony today, he is -- the president has the ability to hire and fire the f.b.i. director. but the reason congress signaled -- through legislation that the term of the f.b.i. director should be 10 years was because they wanted to send a signal that this body is incredibly important and the independence of this body is incredibly important. d so the fact that mr. comey as f.b.i. director felt so uncomfortable about these interactions with the president, nine interactions with the president, i think he had only two interactions with president obama during his entire term, and yet in just the first few months he had nine interactions with president trump. and he actually asked attorney general sessions and deputy attorney general rosenstein not to leave him alone with the president. that is really a re

the f.b.i. is in charge. they plan to have a news conference in just about 30 minutes' time. around the corner from us. we'll listen closely to see what if any political motivations may have had to do in this really charged timing. >> have i still got shots being fired? >> we got one in custody. we need medics. scott: chaos as republican members of congress came under fire practicing early wednesday morning for a charity baseball game. representative mo brooks was feet away. >> i thought it was a car backfiring at first until i see the rifle barrel. a white male taking careful aim at congressman, staffers, whoever he could get ahold of. >> he had a lot of ammo. i think he must have been secured behind the third base dugout for a while. tough to get to him. scattered in every direction. filling a dugout or hopping the fence to get away. >> it went on for what felt like ten minutes. >> a guy, i don't know who he was but he was out here on the field. he was shot early on and he was just laying ther

the director of the f.b.i. if you are president of the united states. and yet he did. but it conveys a mindset of the way he sees the world and the way he operated in business and he's brought that into the white house. robert: kim, if there are no tapes it is perhaps the president's word versus former director comey's word. in that scenario, how does it play out throughout the rest of the country? are they really going to value comey's credibility over the president's? kimberly: well, i think so far. when you check the polls james comey has a bit, a bit more credibility over the president at this point in time. you have a lot of factors. james comey said what he said under oath. he is a former director of the f.b.i. you saw the members of the senate intel committee on both sides of the aisle viewed that with a lot of credibility and were very respectful to him. the president has done a lot to undermine his own credibility and so that will be tough. i think with his base they are with him. they are going to def

of the f.b.i. motivated to do so out of his own whatever was going through his mind. but those who have been put together a conflict of interest, rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general appointing robert mueller who is attacking on ought broadest terms for god knows what, this administration. that means republican leaders toad silent and permitted it to happen. congressman, you have got to hate that kind of violent political act as well. >> this situation with the special counsel, there again something that causes concern. in my opinion, i would think mr. mueller need to consider recusing himself from this. what an obstruction investigation, mr. comey would be aer witness. and he has a personal relationship with that witness. so i would think that if he is following the rules he would consider recusing himself from this work. now, i think it's also important to look at mr. rosenstein who says he wrote the memo and made the recommendation that mr. -- lou: he told the president to fire james come

looking at the f.b.i. and the justice department as a threat? is he -- was that the goal of issuing that statement? it was very strangely worded, particularly the first sentence, because he refers to stories in particular that don't say the origin of the officials, whether they're u.s. officials or foreign officials. we don't have any idea what he's referring to with that. the sources that we're dealing with are american officials. we're not getting information from foreign officials so educate our stories, inform our stories about the f.b.i.'s investigation. so we're really not clear what the intention was there with that statement. clearly, he's -- you know, rod is in an incredibly difficult position right now. maybe he is kind of doing -- making these -- some people would call them mistakes, under that pressure, because he's feeling the pressure. >> seems to be scoop after scoop, then anger and more anger from the administration. and that's reflected in a lot of the response around the president, in the

, the f.b.i., a.t.f. and all of our federal enforcement local partners who assisted in this response. it's going to take a while to sort through all the details. my units of the dignitary protection unit were on sight when we had -- when the incident occurred. they did engage in gunfire with the suspect. and they were assisted by the alexandria police. the officers, the officers who were injured are in good condition and have not suffered any life-threatening injuries at this point. chief verderosa: as we get more information we will be working through the f.b.i. and our local partners with the alexandria police to provide more details as they become available. at this point i'll turn it over o the f.b.i. >> good morning. tim slater. i'm the special agent in charge of the washington field office and i just want to reiterate what the chiefs have said. this is a secured community at this point. it's an active investigation. however, the security of the community is paramount and i want to reassure you that'

he publicly thanked the f.b.i. director for helping secure the inauguration, but comey associates say he felt uneasy, concerned the handshake could compromise the independence of the f.b.i. at the time the bureau was nearly six months into a counterintelligence investigation of russian meddling in the election and the evidence was mounting. on march 20th at a congressional hearing, comey confirmed the probe. >> that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. >> reporter: among those under scrutiny, fired national security adviser michael flynn, former campaign chairman paul adviser carter evans, and the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. >> the entire thing has been a witch-hunt. >> reporter: the president has consistently dismissed the russia investigation, but just as comey alleges mr. trump pressured him over the investigation, sources also sa

, the f.b.i. by saying the organization was in disarray, that it was poorly led, that the workforce had lost confidence in its leader. those were lies, plain and simple. >> trevor: whoa, whoa, whoa, james comey, calling the president a liar? how dare you tell us things we already know! we didn't (bleep) for this! we want new information! ( applause ) so today comey gave really impressive testimony with details on every meeting, every phone call he had with trump, who, what, where, what facial expressions they had when they spoke, what they smelled like, everything, and the reason comey was able to go into such meticulous detail is, immediately after every single interaction he had with trump he wrote memos which james comey should be awarded for. he's the only person who wanted to remember his meetings with trump. the only question is why? >> now, you've had extensive experience at the the department of justice and at the f.b.i. you've worked on -- for the presidents of both parties. what was it a