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School Shooting in Florida Investigation; U.S. Election Meddling. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired February 16, 2018 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[12:30:02] PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And I think a lot of people right now are just staring at the courts to figure out what's going to -- kind of make anything happen in the future.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: You were talking to lawmakers and senior aides today. Do they have any end game?

MATTINGLY: Look, I think when you talk to people on both sides, they -- you can recognize that the prism through which the people see the negotiations, whether it's the White House, Republicans or Democrats, needs to shift a little bit. And look at the baselines here. Democrats were saying a pathway to citizenship, not just the 690,000 individuals who got DACA but for the entire population will be eligible for it, is a red line for them.

While Republican say, if you're going to say that, the border wall isn't enough. We have to start moving over the family migration diversity lottery. The things the president has talked about repeatedly.

Well, that's a red line. So I think that's why you're starting to hear from Democrats and Republicans that perhaps pared-back is the only way to go. Legal status for a short period of time that can be renewed in exchange for some type of border money.

Usually and, John, you know this as well as anybody, when Congress can't figure out some bigger picture way to do things, they just do it a lot skinnier and kick the can down the road. That seems to be where things would head.

But at this moment, again, there's no clear pathway forward because as you know quite well, the White House has made very clear what they want. They have done everything they possibly could to undercut any option that's out there right now. And until they move off of that, I don't think we're going to see any movement at least on Capitol Hill any time soon.

BERMAN: All right, Phil Mattingly for us on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much.

Back now with the panel. And guys, there is something incoming our way. Now, I'm told we do have breaking news. Hang on one second.

My friend, Shimon Prokupecz has breaking news on the Florida shooter. Shimon, what have you learned?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN REPORTER: Yes, that's right, John. So we just received a statement from the FBI on the school shooting regarding a tip, a tip that they received on January 5th of this year through their tip line. It was a phoned-in tip that specified that the shooter in this case, Nikolas Cruz, potential was causing some danger to the public.

You know, I'm just going to ahead and read the statement to you. This is what the FBI says.

That on January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI's public access line, tip line to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior and disturbing social media posts. As well as a potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Very specific information here. The statement goes on to say that the FBI, we have determined that these protocols, that protocols were not followed here and that the information provided by this caller was never followed up on.

It says that the information should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken. And it appears by this statement that those investigative steps were not taken. The protocols were not followed. The FBI says the information was not provided to the Miami field office and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

And then the FBI director in this statement issues a statement saying, we are -- quote, we are still investigating the facts. I am committing 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.

So, John, clearly, a stunning admission here from the FBI. Remember yesterday we had said -- we had reported that there was a second tip, a second tip that went to the FBI.

We were told yesterday by certain people that they did not understand what we were talking about, that there was this second tip. They were not aware of it.

Well, today we now learn that the FBI was aware of it. Not only were they aware of it, no one ever followed up on it. So certainly a stunning admission here. Now, we know of at least two tips, at least two tips that the FBI received regarding this shooter.

BERMAN: Shimon, just to reiterate here, this is stunning. This is the FBI in a statement, the likes of which I've rarely seen admitting that they dropped the ball.

They were told everything. They were told that someone was worried about this shooter. They were told they were worried about his guns. They were told they were worried about his social media posts. They were told they were worried about a possible school shooting. That's in the statement provided by the FBI right now, yet protocols were not followed? What should have happened here, Shimon?

PROKUPECZ: Well, basically, the call should have been followed up on. It seems that no one ever followed up on the information. And this is what this statement clearly says. The information should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami field office where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken. And that does not appear to have occurred in this situation.

It's a stunning admission, John, that's right. This is really -- you know, as you can tell, I am shocked by this. This is something that I have certainly never heard the FBI say. Certainly, it doesn't seem like they have had this kind of a situation before.

[12:35:04] But I also think it's important to know that under this new FBI Director, Christopher Wray, we have seen him come out, be somewhat transparent as much as he can and when there is a screw-up or when he needs to stick up for something, he does it. And, though, it took a day or so to get this, it's clear, you know, that they have gotten to the bottom of this. And certainly, I can tell you in talking to some people at the FBI today, they are affected by this.

BERMAN: OK.

PROKUPECZ: This is a stunning, stunning admission, certainly.

BERMAN: All right. Shimon, please stand by. I want to bring in CNN law enforcement analyst, Josh Campbell here.

And Josh, again, I have to say that I'm flabbergasted by this statement. Again, I mean, Shimon is right, I give the FBI credit for coming clean with what happened here, but on January 25th to the FBI public access line, which is where you were supposed to call when you see something. This is where you say something. Someone said something and said everything, and protocols were not followed here. How could that happen, Josh?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That's a good question and that is something that will no doubt be part of an exhaustive investigation. You know, sitting here as a former FBI agent, I mean, you get the sinking feeling, and you multiply that, you know, times, not only the viewers here that are watching but also, you know, obviously, the men and women in the FBI. You know, these types of situations, again, as I said, this is the nightmare where, you know, you look back and, you know, identify that there were perhaps information in your holdings that could have saved lives. I mean, it is a nightmare scenario.

And any type of investigation such as this where you have a high- profile incident that's happened, what would typically happen is, you know, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies would take, for example, the name of the subject, you know, run that back through their systems. And, you know, what likely happened here is that that name hit on something that was in a file that, you know, as we saw, just wasn't passed along to the investigators that needed that information. And I think it shows that, you know, this is an organization of human beings, even with some of the most advanced training in the world, there is absolutely no way to eliminate human error.

BERMAN: Let me -- again, I want to read this to you again because the words that the FBI just put out here in and of themselves need to be heard. Someone called the FBI tip line on January 5th. The caller provided information about the killer's, the ultimate killer's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Now, the established protocols, again, by this release that we just got here were supposed to be -- the caller should have been assessed as a potential -- the information should have been assessed as a potential threat to life and then passed on to the Miami field office. Neither of those steps, we understand, were taken, Josh.

CAMPBELL: You're right. And, you know, what is -- there are many different things about this statement that are stunning. I think you just keyed in on, you know, perhaps the most stunning piece of information, as the level of specificity there of the information that was provided.

You know, if we think about this Youtube post that was the subject of intense conversation yesterday and following the aftermath of the shooting, you know, we looked at that and said, even as analysts here, law enforcement analysts saying, well, it didn't have that level of specificity or credibility that maybe would have warranted additional action. It's tough to say that here with this situation where, again, you read the information the bureau has put out as far as the information that was provided, there are no words, you know, to explain this.

I know, you know, again, that will be part of the an exhaustive review to determine, you know, what happened, but it shows the type of risks that, you know, law enforcement deals with in gathering information. And what I hope, and I'll say that, you know, what I fear and what I hope doesn't happen, I hope the average viewer out there watching this that may, you know, have information on another type of crime, doesn't look at this and say, oh, you know, there's no use --

BERMAN: Right.

CAMPBELL: -- in reporting this information. We can't let that happen. We have to keep letting the public know and reminding them that if you have information, you have to report it to law enforcement.

BERMAN: But the FBI needs to prove that it makes a difference, or prove that it is using that information. Josh, --

CAMPBELL: Exactly.

BERMAN: -- I do not know if in your time with the FBI you had experience with the tip line. Can you tell me anything about it, how normally information is processed, how many calls come in? What types of things are heard, what level of specificity they normally hear?

CAMPBELL: So, in this day and age, the FBI attempts to reach the public where they're communicating. So, if there is something that -- someone has a piece of information, they want to make it as easy as possible to get it to the investigators who need to know that. So, you know, in this day and age, you can pick up the phone and call your local FBI field office. Obviously, you can call 911. You can stop a cop on the street and say, I have information I want to provide.

The tip line is simply another venue, another vector into the FBI to provide information. A 1-800 number where, you know, someone can call, they can remain anonymous, provide information, hey, I saw this. And, you know, the purpose of this -- and it's similar to information that, you know, you can find on the website, e-mail addresses, again, multiple in rows into the bureau.

[12:40:02] The purpose is to provide an easy provide an easy way for someone who may know something that it's important that could help stop, you know, some type of violent act like we saw to be able to get that information to the investigators that need it.

BERMAN: And so, I still have Shimon Prokupecz on me who brought the story for us, brought us this release. Shimon, did anything happen or was this just, you know, someone receiving the call taking notes and the notes just sat there? Is the FBI explaining any developments that they took here?

PROKUPECZ: Yes. So, John, I was actually just on the phone with some people. No, we don't have a full explanation yet. I think they're sort of gathering everything, trying to figure out exactly what happened here.

It's clear, though, something was not followed up on. We don't even know how they discovered this tip. It looks like they just went back and maybe --

BERMAN: OK.

PROKUPECZ: -- did some searching. I am told, though, that the information that we have about the second tip that we reported on yesterday is not connected to this. I'm told -- I was just told that now.

BERMAN: OK.

PROKUPECZ: But I don't know what this is related to. We don't have any more, really, specific information that really what's in this statement.

BERMAN: Yes, again, a stunning statement, a stunning admission right now.

PROKUPECZ: Look, I also think, John, you know, this is not -- this is day for the FBI that is not good. You know, and as you know, they've been under fire a lot during the Russia investigation, and here we have another situation where it appears that something went wrong. This is not going to go over well anywhere, and they are aware of this. And this was a morning for them where they had spent quite some time gathering the information and really just trying to get it out there. And this is just not a good day for them.

BERMAN: Josh, what about that?

CAMPBELL: Yes, John.

BERMAN: What about the criticism that is certain to come here along those lines?

CAMPBELL: Yes. I mean, it's unfortunately something that we've seen before. If you think about, you know, the aftermath of the Charleston shooting, that deadly aftermath where, you know, the bureau discovered and looking at another exhaustive review. Again, there was an incident, if you recall, where human error could have possibly prevented the shoot or, you know, had the protocols been followed --

BERMAN: Right.

CAMPBELL: -- the shooter may have not been able to get the weapon that he received. And again, it shows that human error component that you just can't escape when you have human beings that are conducting investigations.

And the thing is the men and women of the FBI, I'm certain, my former colleagues would be the first to say, there is no excuse here, there is not an excuse here. We have to get to the bottom. We have to be held to a higher standard. And, you know, again, there's going to be a lot of criticism in the wake of this, but, you know, we can only hope that that will cause information that is provided to be looked at with maybe greater scrutiny.

BERMAN: You know, I will just say, Josh, and once again, I mean, so many times after these shootings, how could we have all missed the signs? How were so many things overlooked or missed? They weren't here. You had someone, you know, contact Youtube and contact the FBI who had no connection to any of this.

You know, last year we had a concern doing exactly what you're supposed to do as good citizen. That was back in September and then on January 5th, someone close to the killer here. That what was described by the FBI, there's a person close, you know.

We always criticize family and friends who don't speak up when they hear something. Well, this time someone close to the killer did speak up here. And it still didn't make a difference.

CAMPBELL: No, you're right. And, you know, and I think this shows that law enforcement tries to condition the public to pick up the phone, to report information. I think if, you know, if you look at the actions that were followed here where, you know, you have someone calling the FBI to provide something that was of concern.

If you look at the situation yesterday, obviously, with the gentleman on Youtube, you know, calling the FBI to report that information, it sounds like I hope that we're getting the public in that mindset, you know, conditioning them to call law enforcement. It now becomes coveted by the law enforcement to meet them there and ensure that these processes that are in place are done so in a way that allows them to take that information, to treat it in a way that has to be treated in order to prevent crime.

BERMAN: You know, Shimon, let me again just to read the last bit of the statement. This is directly from the FBI Director Chris Wray. We have spoken with victims and families and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women at the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American safe and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.

You know, I can't imagine being one of those families and hearing this news today. I can't imagine coming out of the funeral, you know, and that's happening right now still going on, and getting this information.

PROKUPECZ: I can't either. I mean, reading that and listening to you say that, I have to tell you that -- yes, I mean, to think that something like this, you know, we don't, right? But just to think that some -- you have to wonder whether this is in the back of, right, the families' minds that something like this could have been prevented.

And also, I just want to bring out a point. You know, when you look at that tip from Youtube, you know, had the FBI -- it just seems if they say that they did internal checks, their internal database checks and they check the name in their internal database.

[12:45:11] I wonder why that name didn't come up, why that didn't match up with anything from this tip, you know, in January.

BERMAN: Right.

PROKUPECZ: I don't know. So, it just seems something is not adding up and that's a question that I have and that's something that I'm wondering about. Do you get this tip last year, then they get a tip in January, and why weren't the two connected in any way? And that's a question that also needs to be answered.

BERMAN: All right. Shimon and Josh, stand by for one second. Just stand by for one second there. I want to bring in Evan Perez.

We're told yesterday, Evan, we were told yesterday that there were two threats reported to the FBI. Was this that other threat that was reported yesterday, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: It does appear, John, that there -- that this was the second threat. I had been told yesterday that there was a second threat that had to do with a threat to the school. And we didn't know very much more about it. We talked to the people in law enforcement and the FBI was sticking to its guns, so to speak, that there was only one threat that they knew of, and that's the one related to the Youtube, the Youtube video. It appears that this one is the second one. And what appears to have happened, the FBI doesn't provide a lot of detail here, but it appears that the tip was deleted or just simply did not go into the right places that would have then sent it to the field office in Miami for them to follow up on and for them to do the things that Shimon was just talking about, which is, you know, match it up.

There would -- If you simply put this name in the computer systems of the FBI, it would have brought up the earlier tip, the earlier complaint. And then they might have -- then taken it much more seriously, obviously. Maybe there's a lot of things that come into this tip line. And so, it would have been treated completely differently like it was an imminent threat and then everything might have change as a result of this.

The FBI is going to have to answer some very, very tough questions. Members of Congress yesterday were telling me that they had some very tough questions to the FBI, because they felt that this was a string, there have been a string of incidents in which the FBI had contact with the shooter prior to the shooting occurring, and that the FBI had dropped the ball in some way, in some capacity. And so, there's a lot of tough questions that are coming to the FBI's way from members of Congress in the coming weeks.

BERMAN: All right, Evan standby. I want to bring in CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, James Gagliano. He is a retired FBI supervisory special agent. I want to make you part of this conversation.

Guys, this is, again, a stunning development, a stunning admission from the FBI. They got a phone call on January fifth giving a very detailed warning about this killer. What was going on with him? What he wanted to do? What he ultimately did do just more than a month later. Your reaction?

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANAYST: John, stunned, to use the word that you just used, still processing it. I'm sure we all appreciate the transparency, and in the early aftermath of a shooting like this, a lot of things are coming together, a lot of new developments are going to come forward. And as we sit through them and sort through them, we can't look at any them in a vacuum.

Now, the way that the public access line works, this could have been an 800-number or an 888-number. And when I served in New York office for many years, we had a 212 number there where people could call in and provide tips. When they come in, there is usually an on-duty agent that sits through this and determines. You get a lot of people that like to call that, you know, are threatening on your radar, that call in with ridiculous things. Things like this.

And the way that -- as you outline the detail in it, they should have been processed, triage and then forwarded to the office of origin. In this instance, the OO which is our parlance for office of origin t would have been in Miami office. It should have been sent down there, then the JTTF down there or the agents could have reached out to local law enforcement in this particular part of the state and the done some type of background, search on them. We do automatic -- automated case support searches, ACS searches, go through any potential criminal history that's out there, anything like that, but this should have been prioritized.

I appreciate Director Wray's candor. This is going to be a tough, tough thing for the FBI director to have to deal with when you're dealing with 17 grieving families and still more critically wounded. I'm going to take a step back and take a deep breath and hope we learn some more here in the next couple hours that will maybe make some sense out of this.

BERMAN: Right. I'm not sure that any sense can be made out of this. Again, the nature of the tip line is the calling his this type of thing. It was done by someone close to the killer with what appears to be extraordinary detail.

I want to bring in Senior Law Enforcement Analyst, Tom Fuentes, to this conversation.

Now, Tom, look, it's possible that the FBI, had they followed protocol, could have gone to the house, could have met with this kid.

[12:50:02] They could have he had no criminal record. He could have charmed their pants off and then nothing more would have come of it. But they didn't even go to the door. They didn't even get to square one here. It doesn't appear that anything happened. And that is where the giant problem here is, Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYT: Yes, absolutely, John. This appears that it's a complete failure and it's been acknowledged by the FBI and Director Wray that, you know, that the call wasn't followed up on the way it should have. And how terrible it is for the grieving families and the other, you know, extended families of the victims in this case. And it's just -- it's just an unbelievable tragedy that they had information that theoretically could have prevented this or at least prompted much more investigation, you know, in the Miami division of the FBI and in conjunction with Broward County and other people that knew Cruz to address this. And we just have so much information that had already been in certain people's hands.

The school district knew that they expelled him. The police had been to that house 39 times for domestic disturbances. So, at the local level, that information was already there. This would have been one more thing for the police and the biggest thing for the police to immediately, with the FBI, address it and stop this individual in his tracks before he could have done anything.

And I think that, you know, as far as I can see at this moment, I see no excuse for what's happened here.

BERMAN: All right. One bit of new information just into us right now. I'm not quite sure what this means.

The Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will hold a press conference for a law enforcement announcement. That is at 1:15 p.m. today. Now, many of us know Rod Rosenstein, he's in the news because he's the one that oversees Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation right now, obviously. Rod Rosenstein has been in the hot seat for many reasons because of that.

To my understanding, Josh Campbell, he also oversees there is direct contact to the FBI on other issues as well. So, could he have a role in what's going on, this bombshell announcement from the FBI just now, that they received this tip January 5th, Josh?

CAMPBELL: Yes, it's a very good question, John. And, you know, for those of us who worked at FBI headquarters, they know the role of the deputy attorney general is vast. I mean, there is so much that he is involved in, someone in that position. So, I don't know right now if we can read too much into what that statement would be. It could be a multitude of things. Obviously with personnel changes across the street at DOJ, you have this new issue, you have the Russia investigation. I don't think that we can say with any specificity right now what that would be. But with that we stay tune.

BERMAN: And, again, yes, I don't know, I don't know, we don't know here what the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will talk about. It could that this is for something totally different.

It could be, you know, Evan, you're with me right now, do you have a sense of what's going on here, Evan?

PEREZ: Yes, I mean, look, we still don't have an answer as to what exactly it is. We're just being told it's a law enforcement matter. But I can tell you right now a grand jury has, you know, has returned an indictment against 13 Russian nationals and entities, apparently, related to hacking in the election. So it might be related to that, which is something we've been watching now for over a year.

And the expectation was that the Justice department was going to bring charges against some individuals who they believed were behind the hack of the DNC. We're checking to see whether or not that is indeed what Rod Rosenstein is going to be announcing. It's something, again, that we've been expecting for some months, John. But that's right now, crossing right now from the justice department that there has been an indictment returned against some individuals, Russian individuals, related to election hacking.

BERMAN: All right. So, again, the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will be speaking very shortly. We will bring that to you live when it happens. It could be about some indictments, some elections about Russian hacking, or maybe it's about the special counsel investigation, or maybe about this news we just learned now, the FBI admitting, again, that it received a tip on January fifth, a very detailed tip about the killer, his violent inclinations and fears that he might be engaged in some kind of plans for a school shooting.

Josh, what does the FBI need to do now to prove that it has itself under control?

CAMPBELL: Well, it's a tough day. And obviously, this is a tough situation to be in. I think we can assume we know that there will be an exhaustive review. The FBI statement indicated such. BERMAN: Yes.

CAMPBELL: And obviously the director will be leading that effort. I think that, you know, to get back to something that our colleagues Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz had said earlier, of course, time line, I think what makes this even more troubling, and there are various levels of sadness obviously that we're all, you know, feeling as we look at this is, if you think about the Youtube posting that we talked about yesterday and obviously at that point we mentioned there wasn't specificity, there wasn't credibility.

But if the FBI initiated it's, you know, what in the field we call the eGuardian. It's a Guardian incident system which allows you to track different threats in order to do some type of analysis and determine is there or there or there.

[12:55:10] If that information went into FBI holdings and then fast forward to January where you had this person doing what we want the public to do, picking up the phone and calling the FBI, a simple search of that person's name may have hit on that original holding.

So, that's why I'm concerned that it's not only the fact that the information wasn't passed on from the FBI headquarters tip line to the field office that needed that information. I'm wondering if there was even any type of initial scrub to determine is this someone who, you know, we're just providing information, maybe a poisoned pen, something to that effect. I think there a lot of questions that need to be answered.

BERMAN: All right. Stand by, Shimon Prokupecz, our Crime and Justice Reporter, you are getting information about possible news from the Special Counsel's Office. What have you learned?

PROKUPECZ: Yes, that's right, John. So, we're just getting the indictment. I was sort just kind of read through it. Several Russians are named in this indictment. An internet research agency, all it appears connected to the election, to the interference, to the hacking of the election. It's a 37-page indictment. We should hear more at 1:15 obviously from the deputy attorney general.

It's going to also be interesting because it's going to be the first time that we really hear from Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, about the Russia investigation. Keep in mind, everything having to do with the Russia investigation from the hacking to the Russia interference has all been shifted to the special counsel. So, that's why Rod Rosenstein is going to be announcing these indictments.

We know that the FBI, Department of Justice, has been working on this case, now, since the election, before the election, so this has been longtime coming, a long-term investigation. And we should finally, finally today, hear some details about the people who were behind the Russia interference into our election.

BERMAN: And again, you know, and Josh, to bring you into this conversation right now, these are charges now. These are charges from the U.S government that Russia did hack the election, did try to meddle in the U.S election. And if I'm reading the analysis well, our Rebecca Burg, our CNN Analyst points out, that this will say defendant's operations including supporting the presidential campaign of then candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaging Hillary Clinton right now.

So, now we have the special counsel's investigation from the Department of Justice of the United States, saying that the Russians acted to help Donald Trump and hurt Hillary Clinton.

CAMPBELL: So, let's say, at the outset, obviously, as a former law enforcement officer, every defendant is innocent until proven guilty, so that's out there and the legal process would indicate such.

With that said, moving on, Bob Mueller does nothing without having some strategy behind it. I know that. I had the pleasure of working with him at FBI headquarters when he was the director. He had that reputation as someone who was methodical, who was strategic. And as we look at this, we've seen previous indictments, you know, that have come down in some of the legal process. This is a new development. It is something that, you know, is stunning in the sense of we're now finally getting information that signals where this investigation is headed.

And as you alluded too, you know, up until this point there's been a lot of speculation about what the special counsel is doing, what its roll is, where it's headed. I think we just got a little more information on that as far as the strategy.

BERMAN: The official government position now, not just of the intelligence agencies but the Department of Justice, is that there were Russians who meddled in the election. That is what they charge right now.

And, Shimon, again, if you're keeping score at home this is four individuals connected to Donald Trump's campaign in various ways who have been indicted, you know, two who have plead guilty, pleaded guilty already, one who might be about to. And now 13 Russians, 13 Russians indicted as of today here. This is production from the special counsel investigation, Shimon.

PROKUPECZ: Yes, it certainly is a massive production, right, on a large scale here, naming all these people. It appears right now that a lot of these people obviously are not in this country. So, this will be what they normally do in these cases. You know, they indict these guys and then they sort of just put their photos out and it's kind of, you know, prevent them from traveling to the U.S. We'll see what that's about when the press conference happens.

But it's interesting in this indictment, it also references political advertisements. And in one of the things here it says that from at least April 2016 through November 2016, defendants and their co- conspirators, while concealing the Russian identities and organizing affiliation through false personas began to produce, purchase and post advertisements on U.S social media, right. We talked a lot about Facebook. And this year seems to indicate what we've been talking about, that the special counsel has been investigating those social media postings.

BERMAN: OK. Shimon, thanks so much for being with us again. Two giant pieces of new indictments coming from the special counsel against Russians for meddling in the election.

And then this just startling admission from the FBI that they dropped the ball on a tip about the killer in Parkland, Florida. New details coming in. That's all for "Inside Politics."

I turn you over to Brianna Keiler in for Wolf Blitzer who picks up our special coverage.