Transcripts For CNNW CNN Tonight With Don Lemon 20180317

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Well bring you that later on in this program. First lets get to pamela brown, Chris Cillizza and Josh Campbell, and i want to bring in Juliette Kayyem. Another big, huge story on a friday night. You spoke to mccabe, also its interesting that through your reporting or at least through your contacting him that is actually how he found out about his firing. Thats right. I contacted his representative as soon as the news came out just before 10 00. And they had not heard the news yet. And so his representative reached out to him to let him know and read him the press release the department of justice sent out from the attorney general saying that he was in fact terminated. Now the Justice Department does say, don, that it sent him an email. Im told the email was sent shortly before, and it was sent to his work account, which, of course, he wasnt checking because now hes retired. But this is huge news. And really unprecedented, don, for a career fbi agent who spent more than 20 years in the bureau to be fired in such a public fashion. The department of justice, attorney general Jeff Sessions making this decision late this friday night saying it was because Andrew Mccabe gave unauthorized disclosures of information to the media and misled investigators. This is all revolving around a wall street journal report in october of 2016. Andrew mccabe says that the reporter in this case wanted to write something that was factually inaccurate, that he was trying to slow roll the Clinton Foundation investigation. He authorized two agents to speak to the reporter to clear up confusion and give the facts in his view. He told me in an interview, don, he never misled anyone, never misled the Inspector General, any investigators. And he believes that all of this is really a pattern of attacks to undermine his credibility and his reputation by the president. And in fact he released a statement tonight, don, Andrew Mccabe releasing this statement singling out the president saying the oigs focus on me on this report became part of an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation and possibly strip me of a pension that i worked 21 years to earn. In his view, he believes its twofold. He believes the president began to direct his ire to him once the wall street journal reported that his wife ran for a Democratic State senate seat in 2015 and accepted money from the Clinton Family friend. It was the next year Andrew Mccabe oversaw the clinton email the server email probe. And so he believes thats one reason. But also, don, he told me in the interview that he believes because he could be a witness in Robert Muellers probe in the firing of the former fbi director james comey, he believes that is a big reason why he is being targeted, why he is being turned into a political punching bag. Now, i asked him because as you know the Inspector General is supposed to be nonpartisan. The i. G. Worked under both administrations, the Obama Administration as well. I asked him whether he thought the i. G. Was being unduly influenced, because this stems from an i. G. Report. He says, i dont know. The investigation escalated once it became clear i was a witness for james comey in the mueller investigation, don. When might possibly we get to see the i. G. Report, pamela . Thats a big question. A lot of us thought it would be released before he turned 50 which is when he is eligible to receive the pension. But instead he is being fired. The i. G. Report is referenced. We still dont know the specific allegations of how he misled investigators and other details in that i. G. Report. We expect it to come out fairly soon. But i should note he told me in this interview because its important to hear both sides here in this case we know there is an i. G. Report with the allegations. We dont know the specifics. But he says he wasnt misleading the investigators. He realized there was a misunderstanding after he was interviewed on a couple of occasions, and he proactively went back to them to clear up any confusion. But, again, we are sort of operating in the dark because we dont know the specific allegations in the report, don. Listen pamela, stand by i want to bring in Josh Campbell form fbi supervisory agent. Pamela read from the statement from Andrew Mccabe. But also his representative is saying he believes the i. G. Report is distorted. The former doj inspector is called michael horowitz. He blasted the process that led to the firing saying in a statement, this distortion of the process begins at the top with the president , repeated offensive driveby twitter attacks on mr. Mccabe, josh. Well, i think what we see is a disservice not only to mr. Mccabe, but also to the fbi and the American People, because we dont have that i. G. Report. We are left to take the Justice Department word for the statement which they provided which i find fault with high let me give you an example. As i listened to pamela read the statement, they mentioned the idea of misleading investigators which is a serious allegations. If he did that there should be consequences. But in the same statement they say an accusation of unauthorized media disclosures. Under fbi policy the Deputy Director can decide what to authorize to release to the press. It sounds like a house of cards. That theyre just trying to build, which wont last. I think what we need i think that the Inspector General is nonpartisan. But we need that report. We need it out right now. Because what we are left to do is make the determinations about what happened in a vacuum. And lastly if i could just say. Okay. Please. Go ahead. I was just going to make that point, josh, on being authorized to disclose information to the media. It is true, he is one of three officials was one who could speak to the media or could authorize a disclosure of information to the media. And in this case it had to do with the Clinton Foundation investigation. I asked him whether he was concerned whether part of the issue was he was disclosing information having to do with an active Ongoing Investigation into the Clinton Foundation which as you know, josh, that would not be allowed. But he said that he did not view it that way. The details that the investigation was ongoing were already out in public for a while. And he only authorized according to his what he has to say, a very small piece of it. In that a phone call that took place between him and someone at doj where he said he wanted the investigation to move forward. I think thats an important point for context. Lets talk more about that, juliette. Because the representative said he and mccabe saw the final report a week ago and only had four days to review the evidence, prepare a response and make presentations to the office of the Deputy Attorney general. He said the process fell or the of what mr. Mccabe deserved. This is concerted effort to accelerate the process in order to beat the ticking clock of mr. Mccabes retirement violates any sense of decency and basic principles of fairness. Juliette. I think that is such an important statement from the representative. Because as everyone is stating, he is in this world of maybe no fair players he is viewed as one. The nakt he is the fact that he is coming out saying mccabes due process was denied or unfair is absolutely important to note as part of this process. But i want to get lets get away from process, away from politics, away from, you know, just the gut wrenching feeling all of us feel for mccabes pension. Trust me he is going to be fine. There is probably a lot of book agents calling him right now. Lets talk about mueller. Because thats what this is about. Looking at what happened tonight outside the context of the russia investigation youre missing the big story here. And i think, you know, just focusing on why would they have done this, right, because of mccabes knowledge of the investigation early on he was part of the investigation. And then, of course, of his contemporaneous knowledge of why comey was fired. Those two things are relevant not just for obstruction of justice but also for potential collusion, which, of course, we know the special prosecutor is looking for. So are the trump people stupid . Because they have now unleashed mccabe. And i have to believe they are not. And what they probably did is they weighed the the they weighed these two things, firing mccabe and letting him be unleashed as he is or trying to undermine him now because they know he knows a lot. And they chose tonight. And they chose to try to undermine a key witness who potentially has information against them. So i dont think theyre going you know, regret this, i think they knew this was going to happen, and they had to choose. And they those one of two bad options for a white house looking at a investigation by the special prosecutor thats getting closer and closer to the oval office. And they wanted him out of the process because of his knowledge. Listen, chris im bringing you in. But i see josh nodding here. Yeah. Let me just read this. Because she is actually saying i think what mccabes statement says is here is the reality. Here is what he says. He is sort of saying what juliette is saying. Im being singled out and treated this way because of the role i played, actions i took and the events i witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of james comey. Josh. No, youre right. The reason why i was sitting there nodding is because juliette is spot on. If you look at the time line. Look where we are. Its friday night, a day and a half before he is eligible to retire. I was in the fbi for over a decade. I cant tell you one example of an investigation or an inquiry that ever had a time line attached to it. But you know ill tell you something else. One thing jim comey used to say is that Law Enforcement arent believers of coincide. If you look at the way this investigation took place and where we are now, its serious questions to be answered by the attorney general and the Inspector General as far as where we are now on the day before he is eligible to retire. To add to that, don, since im in the business of covering politics, im also a big believer in no coincides. If you believe that mccabe was rightly fired, then ask yourself this. Why was it announced at 10 00 p. M. On a friday night . I mean, if you think the white house was 100 within its rights, Jeff Sessions this was a decision that the i. G. Recommended, Jeff Sessions took the recommendation of the Inspector General, theyve had the report. It didnt come out at 9 50 p. M. On a friday night. Why do it now . I know for a fact that these things dont happen by accident. There are less eyeballs on something at 10 00 p. M. On friday night than there are at lets say 3 00 in the afternoon or 11 00 in the morning on a friday or a wednesday. These are not that is not a coincidence. If you believe this was rightfully done, figure out an answer to that question. Why if this was the right thing to do and the white house is Standing Firm behind it and feels good about it was it announced at 10 00 on friday night. Chris, listen thats the old paradigm. We see the numbers. And friday nights have become highly rated. Very. A lot of news. No one knows whats going to happen. There may be more eyes at 10 00 on friday night than at 3 00 in the afternoon on a weekend. Its no longer news dump friday. Its not because im sitting here. Because thats, indeed, the truth. Lets talk a little bit more about this. Juliette said you know its not just process but quickly, chris, because i have to get to the break. What happened to the official or the president standing in front of the podium saying it was because of these reasons we thought it was the proper thing to do to fire the deputy fbi director today at 3 00, we made this decision. Do you know what im saying instead of the same thing that happened when Rex Tillerson via twitter that he is fired. This is the secretary of state. This isnt some eighth level appointee of the state department. This is the head of it. Donald trump weirdly, for a guy who made his career, at least celebrity on the phrase youre fired doesnt like to actually be that person who says youre fired. We know even if you john kelly was the one who told Rex Tillerson, fyi youre not long for this job at the end of last week. It wasnt donald trump. I just these things are not accidental. They are not coincidental. And i think you have to realize that. But so much of it what we witness on Reality Television is actually not Reality Television. This president is kind of the opposite of what he presented himself to be. Right. On Reality Television sitting in that fake boardroom on a fake television show. So interesting. Juliette, i think youre spot on with this. What did Andrew Mccabe know and why is this administration so afraid of what he knew . Well talk about that as well when we come back. More on the breaking news the firing of Andrew Mccabe 48 hours before the planned retire pmt congressman Eric Swalwell from the House Intel Committee joins me next. My name is jeff sheldon, and im the founder of ugmonk. Before shipstation it was crazy. Its great when you see a hundred orders come in, a hundred orders come in, but then you realize ive got a hundred orders i have to ship out. Shipstation streamlined that wh the order data, the weights of , everything is seamlessly put into shipstation, so when we print the shipping ll everythings pretty much done. Its so much easier so now, were ready, bring on t. Shipstation. The number one ch of online sellers. Go to shipstation. Com tv and get two months free. Your plaques are always there at the worst times. Constantly interrupting you with itching, burning and stinging. Being this uncomfortable is unacceptable. Im ready. Tremfya® works differently for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. With tremfya®, you can get clearer and stay clearer. In fact, most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks. Stayed clearer through 48 weeks. Tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. Tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections, and may increase your risk of infections. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Before starting tremfya®, tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. Ask your doctor about tremfya®. Tremfya®, because you deserve to stay clearer. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options for tremfya®. Breaking news tonight, attorney general Jeff Sessions firing former fbi director Deputy Director Andrew Mccabe. Mccabe telling cnn tonight, quote, i never misled the Inspector General in any way. Joining me now congressman swalwell. First let me get your reaction to mccabes termination. Do you think its politically motivated . Don, i think that donald trump and Jeff Sessions are sending a message to other people in the administration who may have seen something or who may be saying something to special counsel or congress about the president and his ties to russia. We interviewed andy mccabe for nearly ten hours. I found him to be an honest and decent person who knew a lot about the president s ties to russia. I fear that this is a punitive act, a petty act right before he is about to collect his pension. But more intended to send a message to anyone who would cross the president. Cnn National Security analyst Juliette Kayyem was on moments ago before the break and said she believes the administration and the president are concerned about how much Andrew Mccabe knows about the investigation, and they weighed the choices. Do they deal with the political fallout with this or keep him there knowing that he has been there since the beginning of the investigation . To me, you know, being a former prosecutor, it looks like they are trying to dirty him up. They figure that there is more charges from mueller coming down the pike and that eventually mccabe is going to be a figure in a trial, in a narrative, and that if they can dirty him up now, put an asterisk around his role, that that could mitigate their exposure. And you know, i know that mccabe knows things, because he told the House Intelligence Committee what he knows. And he was you know at the genesis of this investigation. And he actually countered a lot of what the House Intelligence Committee republicans put in their memo, their false memo. So this is i think just of an effort to take a key player off the field. Listen, i have to ask you this because cnn is learning that about 19 nearly 20 members of the fbi have been dismissed for lack of candor in the last year. That is a fireable offense . Yeah, don, you know, when youre interviewed by internal affairs or the office of professional responsibility as they have at the fbi, people should be straightforward, honest. But right now there is no denying that its a different environment in this trump era, that he certainly is going after his enemies. And he the president has made it clear on twitter, in his Public Comments that he viewed andy mccabe as an enemy and not for anything andy mccabe did. Which is so unfair. If he did mislead investigators, though, if he did mislead them, is that a problem . It is. If that occurred, of course. I dont know if that necessarily means losing someones 22year pension. Because i know for Police Officers and firefighters they work so hard, they get paid, you know, very little, but they do it for the pension. That perhaps a demotion or reduction in rank. But if he misled them thats a problem. Im just suggesting that i think the president has telegraphed that andy mccabe is an enemy and that he is its very likely that he didnt get a fair shot. He was very straight with us for ten hours. And he faced the toughest republican questioning. And he was straight, he was honest. He did not equivocate, he did not try to duck any of the answers as we saw many of the trump family witnesses did. We saw someone forthcoming. If he was like that with the fbi, he was getting a raw deal. Congressman, mccabe also told pamela brown that the warrant to surveil carter page would not have been sought without the steele dossier was selectivelyly quoted and mischaracterized. He said thats what democrats have said all along. Thats right, don. And actually, i asked my colleagues during one of our open meetings to release andy mccabes transcript, because i believe it would show that that is not what he said. That it actually was taken out of context and used to, you know, try and embarrass andy mccabe and discredit the steele dossier. And if they really had evidence that that was the case that they would release the full transcript. Now, in the larger context of the russia investigation, the public should see the transcripts to show the public whether there is collusion or not. They should be able to decide for themselves. And the republicans who said the transcripts would be available are now backing off that claim, and are saying that theyre not going to release them. Its interesting and does seem shady, from a lay person and also stopping the investigation now just before this happens, what the world is going on here . To me, it looks like the fix is in. They are ending the investigation. They gave the president , you know, the impetus to send out the all caps tweet that there is no collusion. And now theyre firing a key witness in the investigation. And so this is what we are up against. This is the snow that keeps falling that we have to plow through to get to the truth. But fortunately i know the American People are on our side. I see them across the country. They want to know what we can do to harden the ballot boxes so russia doesnt do this again. And i think anyone who continues to look the other way or works with the president to obstruct our investigation, theyre going to pay a steep price in november for really standing in the way of our great democracy. As one who has been on this earth for a number of year, 52 years now, the truth always comes out. We will see it. Im not sure how long it takes but we will see it. Thank you for your time, congressman. My pleasure, don. When we come back, more on the firing of Andrew Mccabe two days shy of his retirement. Plus to the breaking news on Stormy Daniels. Its time for the sleep number spring clearance event. 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Breaking news on a friday night. Jeff sessions fires Andrew Mccabe. The former fbi Deputy Director just two days away from retiring. Here to discuss is Chris Whipple the author of the gatekeepers, how the white house chief of staff define every presidency doug former Deputy Director mccabe fired after more than 20 years of service by the way. Is there any comparison to nixons saturday night massacre . Yeah, i mean this will be known as the friday night slaughter, you know, this was the very idea that Jeff Sessions hasnt released something to inform the public what this is, its done in a kind of cloak of secrecy late at night in a bizarre fashion, the fact that he was about to have his pension and they couldnt let it go. Its something very cruel and saturday thats occurred tonight. And i think our country now hopefully is going to wake up i mean, donald trump is struggling for his life. He is paranoid. He felt that mccabe was too close to comey, and he decided to get rid of anybody and anything thats standing in his way of kind of survival mode right now. But i think we can say tonight that the Trump White House is at war with our fbi. Well, and speaking of that, because, chris isnt he in a fight with Christopher Wray at times . His handpicked director of the fbi . Every time we think we hit rock bottom the bottom falls out and we sink to new depths. This was petty, vindictive. It had all the hallmarks of a political and personal vendetta, and its vintage donald trump. But beyond that i think what this shows is that more than a year into the trump presidency, there are no grownups in the room. This isnt just on donald trump. Its also on sessions, john kelly. Kelly has failed time and again members of congress. To stand up to trump when he has trashed constitutional norms, democratic institutions, attacked the fbi, now this. And i think what it shows is that, you know, there are no grownups in the room. And nobody its a real failure on the part of kelly and the people around the president. Mccabe released a statement saying in part this. He says im being singled out and treated this way because of the role i played and the actions i took and the events i witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of james comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that i would corroborate former deputy former director comeys accounts of his discussion was the president. The oigs focus on me and this report became a part an unprecedented effort by the administration driven by the president himself to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation and possibly strip me of my pension that i worked for 21 years to earn. Congressman swalwell, douglas was on just before you, and he said if you look at all this, and considering what mccabes statement was just then, the fix is in. And it sounds like mccabe is saying that the fix is in. Thats right. And mccabe now has to become a real courage spokesperson about whats going on in america. Its absolutely unacceptable the way this has gone down this woke, the way donald trump is taunting people, the way that he is humiliating ourselves internationally. We have the Stormy Daniels situation brewing. He is a president thats coming unglued. He is not right in personality or in thought or in action. And we did see that with nixon when the pressure of watergate came on, when nixon would bark all sorts of odd orders to people. And people didnt follow them. This time around people followed them. And the person that let us down is Jeff Sessions, the attorney general either needed to recuse himself, don, or not played into this political hit job that donald trump has just done on mccabe. In fbi history to have this happen, you know to a man of that distinguished caliber and to be treated in this shabby way, and the way Rex Tillerson was treated this week, its something diabolical about it. And i hope more people are waking up to Donald Trumps total fear of the mueller investigation. Here is what the Fbi Agents Association released a statement just moments ago. Ill read this for you chris and saying basically ill sum if up the Association Says in statement says personnel decisions should never be politicized and that the association is committed to ensuring members are provided appropriate procedural protections here. Well, you know, doug is right. The fish rots from the head. And you know everybody in the orbit of this president is ultimately sucked in and tarnished or destroyed. It happens to almost everyone. And i think that this this could lets hope this is a turning point. And that people like kelly and others will wake up and realize that were in real danger here. Thank you, gentlemen. I appreciate both of your perspectives. When we come back, we have got breaking news on the Stormy Daniels saga. Well give you all the details next. You said youre not like me, never drop to your knees, look into the sky for a momentary high, you never even tried till its time to say goodbye, bye everybody fights for a little bit of light, i believe. Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. Your plaques are always there at the worst times. Constantly interrupting you with itching, burning and stinging. Being this uncomfortable is unacceptable. Im ready. Tremfya® works differently for adults with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. With tremfya®, you can get clearer and stay clearer. In fact, most patients who saw 90 clearer skin at 28 weeks. Stayed clearer through 48 weeks. Tremfya® works better than humira® at providing clearer skin and more patients were symptom free with tremfya®. Tremfya® may lower your ability to fight infections, and may increase your risk of infections. Before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection or have symptoms such as fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. Before starting tremfya®, tell your doctor if you plan to or have recently received a vaccine. Ask your doctor about tremfya®. Tremfya®, because you deserve to stay clearer. Janssen wants to help you explore cost support options for tremfya®. Breaking news tonight. For the first time President Trump has joined legal action in the Stormy Daniels matter. Attorneys defending the president and the company of his personal Legal Counsel Michael Cohen have filed to move the lawsuit against their clients by daniels to federal court, and they are claiming she could owe as much as 20 million for violating a nondisclosure agreement. I want to bring in criminal defense attorney joe tacopina. Cnn legal analyst areva martin, the author of make it rain. Its interesting because every day it seems to be a new development in this situation. They have filed papers seeking 20 million from Stormy Daniels. He alleged she violated the nondisclosure agreement 20 times. Whats your reaction . Not surprising. They are in a difficult situation, cohen and the trump administration, Stormy Daniels is really outmaneuvering them. She went into a los angeles superior court, filed an action to have that nondisclosure agreement, the arbitration clause, the arbitration that was started by Michael Cohen declared null and void. She is basically saying donald trump cant hold her to that nondisclose agreement and that she is free to talk about her alleged affair with him. In fact we know she already taped an interview that is set to air in about a week or so. So she is challenging the legal validity of this nondisclosure agreement. And now, trumps team is trying to fight back which is why they removed this case to federal court, i believe thinking they would have a greater chance be more successful in federal court than in a superior court in los angeles. Well its interesting that they say 20 times. Every interview ive seen with Stormy Daniels, unless theyve seen other interviews she says i cant talk about it. And they dance around it with everyone understanding whats going on. But she doesnt talk specifically about the alleged affair. My take is he should add defendants to that lawsuit. Michael cohen. Because he certainly breached the confidentiality agreement by going out there and telling the bastion of reporters he paid 130,000 of his own money and his press secretary at the white house who talked about a private arbitration the president was a party to that was not supposed to be anything but confidential. Were here again not because of anything that Stormy Daniels areva, you know how much i respect you. I dont think they outmaneuvered trump. Trumps own people did him in. We wouldnt be here if Michael Cohen hadnt made the pronouncement that he had paid 130,000 of his own money without his client knowing about it, which we know is an ethical violation. It makes the agreement unenforceable. The press secretary of the white house talking about the private arbitration that the president was victorious in. We wouldnt be here talking about this. Quite frankly, if trump had taken the wind out of the sail a long time ago by saying, yeah, 12 years ago, whatever, i had a relationship with her. Do you think like does his bastion of support do his supporters care about that . Of course not. Wed have nothing to be talking about except a minor scandal that would go away. I want to ask you about charles harter. Go ahead. That is the attorney behind the gawker case which caused gawker to go out of business. What do you think of the hiring of him and bringing him on . Thank god that i think that someone who has legal skills has gotten involved in the case. If you look at what happened in this case thats what joe is alluding to. Michael cohen has made every mistake a lawyer can make. And then you add to that not just him emailing, be using the Trump Organization email as hes negotiating this settlement with Stormy Daniels attorney while maintaining the Trump Organization has no knowledge of it and is no is not involved in it, then he goes out and talks about it. Then jill martin, a lawyer that is the associate general counsel for the Trump Organization, she files the arbitration agreement. But yet claims she did so in her individual capacity, not in the capacity as the associate general counsel or the assistant general counsel for the Trump Organization. So i think there is a sense that they need to get a really smart, really skilled lawyer involved because Michael Cohen and company just keep making mistake after mistake after mistake. Umhum what do you say about that joe . Lets talk about avenatti here who, michael avenatti, who is Stormy Daniels attorney also made claims that stormy was physically threatened to keeping quiet about the affair. The fact is that my client was physically threatened to stay silent about what she knew about donald trump. The details surrounding that she is going to discuss im sure on the 60 minutes interview on march 25. And the American People are going to weigh her veracity and whether she can be trusted, whether she appears to be credible, and whether it happened or not. And theyre going to learn the details surrounding that. And were going to let them judge for themselves whether she is being honest. She is going to be able to provide very specific details about what happened here. So before being represented by avenatti stormy approached you about representation. Did you get any impression she may have signed the nda under durres . Was she afraid for her physical safety . You know, of course don i cant talk about my impressions or any conversations we had because of the Attorney Client privilege that attaches even to a consultation. I will say to that, without hearing from her attorney any further details regarding who that physical threat was made by its hard for us to sit here and say its trump or trumps people. I mean, it could have been some crack pot supporter of his saying you know im going to kill you if you take him down whatever. That cant be attributable to him yet anyway. Quickly i want to you stand by you believe that Michael Cohen breached the nda be even though it was reported by the newspaper first . Of course. I mean, again, i dont know what law school he went to or what law books he reads but you cant because a newspaper leaks something it doesnt allow you to breach a confidentiality agreement as a lawyer and go out there and say, well it was already leaked im going to confirm i paid her 130,000. You no court in the world is that permissible. What he said what he said if he understands law is that he paid that out of his own money and his client didnt know about the agreement in my what he should know is that its unenforceable and its a fraud a violation of the cannon of ethics for him to bind the client to the agreement without the client knowing about it. If he thinks he is doing a good job, great. Congratulations. Which is why i said to you she came to you about this and you said to me, you can report that and say that, but i cant confirm because its Attorney Client privilege. Exactly what we are doing right now. Thank you very much we proved your point. Thank you very much. When we come back, more breaking news. Andrew mccabe fired, the former fbi Deputy Director telling cnn he was the victim of attacks designed to undermine his credibility, including President Trump. Needles. Essential for vinyl, but maybe not for people with rheumatoid arthritis. Because there are options. Like an unjection™. Xeljanz xr. 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Our breaking news tonight, attorney general Jeff Sessions firing Andrew Mccabe, the former fbi dek Deputy Director was two days shy of his retirement. Im wondering how this firing is going to play out in the public. This is a guy who worked for 20 years for a pension and just like that it is gone. Theres a statement from Fbi Agents Association. There are people who support him out there, tara. How is this going to play . Its complicated. Because in this case, obviously, there was merit from what we understand. We need to see the ig report to back it up. Hes saying that report is misleading. Right. Of course, hes going to defend himself. And this cant there is due process he will have an ability to appeal this. So the jury is out as to whether he loses everything or what happens. This is not the end all. Its a shame that someone who has a record like his for so long, that its ending this way. However there were some things that were questionable, you cannot mislead Inspector General investigators. He was also under investigation for potential hatch act violations because of his wifes state senate run in 2015. He didnt recuse himself from the Hillary Clinton investigation until a week before the election. And Inspector General reports and Inspector Generals, theyre very nonpartisan. So what makes it seem to me that there was merit is that the office of professional responsibility made this recommendation. Im sure they didnt make it easily. Thats something we have to consider. Unfortunately the president of the United States engaged in a personal campaign to destroy andy mccabe at the same time. So it muddies the waters. So you cant take it without taking into consideration the president of the United States personally targeted him because of his proximity to the russia investigation and his role in it. He telegraphed what he wanted which is not right, either. I think it was the head of the fbi who did everything when it came to his wife, calling, asking how he should handle this. He did everything on the up and up. Should his wife not run for office because he was a member of the fbi . Should she not get no. What was under question is whether he properly reported some of the campaign donations. He said he nothing to do with her campaign but there was facebook pictures of him wearing campaign tshirts and asking people to vote for his wife. So these are things that are when youre at that level you have to be completely forthcoming. Maria, what do you want to say to that . I kind of agree with tara and in a couple of things in that i dont think we can make a full judgment here until we see the ig report because there are people who were saying that it was misrepresented. He talks about how it was misrepresented. And people who heard his testimony talk about how his testimony was misrepresented as well. In terms of the hatch act stuff, i mean, yeah, that was supposedly his superior said he did everything on the up and up. It was his wife running, of course he was going to support her. The question is if he did it while he was on the clock, it doesnt seem like he did. So it would not be a hatch act violation. But i think lets go to the percepti perception. You asked how it was going to affect donald trump. I dont think its going to be a positive thing. I dont think its going to be a positive thing for republicans, because this does have all the perception that this was like a political hit job. A moblike political hit job that was geared toward, directed toward somebody who quote, unquote, had the goods on donald trump and it was a way to shut him up. Which frankly now i think its going to do the opposite . Scott, what do you think . I think they appear to be well within their rights to do it based on the fact he lied to internal investigators, the guy is going to get due process. It doesnt blow out his entire pension. Were in for a battle royal between mccabe whos trying to portray himself as being the victim of a political hit job and the internal investigators at doj who filed a report that was pretty damning so we need to see that document and we want to see how this plays out. I think the doj has got to get out to the public the facts behind his misleading investigator tors because i think to the extent trump is going to get blamed for this, it can be mitt dw can be mitigated by the facts as they come out if he did mislead internal investigators at the doj. I have to run guys, im out of time. If all of this wasnt enough, Stormy Daniels will be 39 in five minutes. Happy birthday stormy. All right. Happy birthday, stormy. Well be right back. Hi. Im the one clocking in when youre clocking out. Sensing your every move and automatically adjusting to help you stay effortlessly comfortable. I can also help with this. Does your bed do that . Oh. I dont actually talk. Though im smart enough to. Im the new sleep number 360 smart bed. Lets meet at a sleep number store. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce wrinkles. Neutrogena®. Tonight we begin another year of introducing you to everyday people changing the world. Our incredible cnn heroes. After carol rosensteins husband was diagnosed with dementia, she began to feel him slipping away and started to lose hope. Then one day he sat down at a piano. I was seeing something magical happening before my eyes. The doctor told me that we were watching the power of music changing brain chemistry. Playing a Musical Instrument is like a full body workout for the brain. The music actually resurrected him. To get an inside look at the band carol created for her husband and to watch their full story go to cnnheroes. Com right now. While youre there nominate someone who inspires you, someone you think should be a 2018 cnn hero. Thats it for us tonight. Thanks for watching. Make sure you have a great weekend. Theres a lot of news, im sure thats going to happen over the weekend. Happy birthday, Stormy Daniels. The u. S. President tweets, its a great day for democracy, jub lent that the Deputy Director has been fired. Andrew mccabe not going out quietly. Stormy daniels lawyer says she just wants to tell her side of the story. Now, President Trumps lawyers are joining the legal action. The poisoning of an exrussian spy and his daughter. The British Ambassador just arrived. More on