Guard young childrens developing brains from the dangers of tackle football. Keep an eye on this bill, if it becomes law, many other states can get on board too, all in the name of keeping athletes safe. We may not see tackle football until high school. The beat with ari melber starts right now, good evening, ari. Good evening chuck, and thanks very much. President trump is about to land back in washington this hour, the first time on u. S. Soil since these reports that donald trump ordered the fire of Special Counsel bob mueller whos investigating him all the way back in june. The plan you may have heard was only stopped because of a threatened resignation from Donald Trumps lawyer don mcgahn. This is big. The top democrat investigating russia today says the news makes trump look guilty. This president has continued to say theres no there there. Well he is acting in absolutely
the opposite way of someone who had nothing to hide. This New York Times report was followed by a similar account with other publications like nbc news, tthe washington pos post, fox news, together these accounts lay out a picture of a president looking for any way to hobble this russia probe from Firing Mueller to firing the man overseeing mueller, Rod Rosenstein, who was of course appointed by donald trump. Now one thing we have not heard from the white house is a specific denial. The reporter who broke the related story this week of a threatened resignation by another person, Donald Trumps fbi director said today the lack of any denial is remarkable. This is absurd, lets just remember that, you have the president saying its fake news and no one else in the white house denying it. Thats insane. Insane and in a moment ill speak with Nick Ackerman and barbara mcquaid. But first, well talk with a harvard professor who he has a forthcoming book, to end a presidency, the power of impeachment. Thanks for joining me on a significant news night. Your view as a legal matter of what this new information about this attempt to order the firing of bob mueller means to this investigation. Thanks for having me, ari. I think this means a great deal. Before we learned that in june, the president had actually ordered the firing of the Special Prosecutor, Robert Mueller, we knew a great deal already. We knew that he had fired comey, he had tried to make it look like he was firing him because he didnt like the way he handled Hillary Clintons emails. But he told lester holt on national tv that it had to do with the russia thing. We knew all kinds of things about the president , but all of them were a bit am big woug. Ambiguous. Maybe he simply didnt know the rules of the game, he didnt know the ropes yet, he was clueless. But now we know that after a conversation with don mcgahn, his white House Counsel, who must have warned him of how serious a problem he would be in if he had another Saturday Night Massacre of the kind that nixon had. After being warned he was still so determined to prevent the probe into the russia thing, into the way russia played a role in our election, that he ordered mcgahn to fire Special Counsel. I just want to pause on the point you make, before you go on, you just sort of swung through very quickly, because i know how fast your brain works, a very key observation, youre
saying your understanding of this role and your knowledge of the way presidencies and the white House Counsels work, is this entire operation would have necessarily included don mcgahn already discussed and warned to the president how serious this would be . Thats certainly right. Don mcgahn is a professional, hes got a reputation as a very fine lawyer. He would be committing malpractice as white House Counsel if he didnt alert the president. So the president said i dont care, i want him gone. I want him gone. And i order you to get rid of him. And there are various things that don mcgahn could have done to carry out that crime and it would have been a crime because it clearly would have been an ongoing obstruction of an important piece of the system of justice. But not wanting to commit a crime and perhaps worried about how he had already been implicated, in the firing of
comey, and in trying to pressure Jeff Sessions, not to recuse himself, don mcgahn did what any decent lawyer would do and that is to say, mr. President , i will not commit this crime, i cant do it. In fact if you make me do it, ill quit. And of course at that point, the president backed off. But it shows a great deal about his corrupt motives and eliminates the possibility of any defense that he was simply a novice at the political game and he didnt know what he was doing, it eliminates all that, that but for mcgahns threat to resign, he would have carried this out. And hes been talking continually about considering the possibility of firing Robert Mueller. Theres no conceivable explanation of that, other than the fact that what Robert Mueller knows and is likely to bring forward is terribly incriminating for the president. And i think were right on the verge of some kind of explosion. When miller says i want to interview you, and trump, after getting advice from his lawyer might say, i really dont feel comfortable with it, if thats what he says, he will be ordered to appear. He will be subpoenaed. If he defies that subpoena, he will be defying a court order and that will lead to a constitutional explosion, even among loyal republicans. When you say that you know this would have been an illegal act, and that don mcgahn knew it would have been an illegal act, in plain english, how do you know that . Because ive read the United States criminal code. It would not be simply a potentially impeachable offense. It would be an out and out crime. Because it would be an interference with an Ongoing Investigation with a corrupt
purpose, a corrupt purpose means to hide the truth to protect yourself or your inner circle or your family. When he fired comey, it was at least conceivable that he was doing it for one of the other reasons he gave, though not the reason he gave lester holt. Maybe he was doing it because he thought comey had not conducted himself well across the board. Comey after all was the head of the whole fbi. Mueller was appointed because comey was fired and muellers whole mandate was to look into the role of russia, hostile foreign power, in interfering with the central act of american democracy, our president ial election. So donald trump cant plead ignorance, he cant i neve today. That would have been a crime, a
federal crime, seriously punishable. Professor, you have laid out with great clarify why there is a federal Criminal Liability for the person who would carry out that order, as well as the related constitutional implications. I appreciate you joining us on this big news night, harvard law professor. I turn to Nick Ackerman and former u. S. Attorney barbara mcquaid, two people who have given a lot of thought to the as well as this possibility. Because up until last night, all of this, i think for us was schooled in hypotheticals, some rumors, because there was talk in june, but never a full force multiple publications saying this was a president ial order. So barbara, picking up where Professor Tribe left off. Is it a fair reading of the four
corners of this act to say that there is no nonrussia probe reason on the facts to remove mueller, and therefore it looks like interfering with the russia probe. It looks like that, i think Robert Mueller would want to explore all of the facts of this before saying it was a Slam Dunk Case of Obstruction Of Justice, it certainly is additional evidence, i think that bolsters the Obstruction Of Justice charge, but i dont know that you have it alone, that Corrupt Intent is so important, understanding the motivation, President Trump says he was offended that Robert Mueller interviewed for the job of fbi director one day and was appointed Special Counsel the next. Hes one who perceives the fbi director as someone who works for him personally, who is now on the other side, maybe he did have some thought that this was in some way disloyal. So i think you do have to look into what was his intent. But i agree with Professor Tribe that there is very strong
evidence of Obstruction Of Justice here, and i think theres also evidence of Something Else in the law we refer to as consciousness of guilt. That is some act you do that shows that you feel like youre guilty. I want to play for you an incredible piece of sound from different people, including the president talking about this. I think we have enough evidence to say who is lying in this tape, and who is simply totally misinformed and out of the loop, at least based on these new accounts, take a listen. The president is not discussing firing bob mueller. Mr. President have you thought about leading up the Special Counsel that would send you in that direction. I havent given it any thought. Are you considering firing Robert Mueller . Is he setting the stage for Firing Mueller . No. Theres no way hes going to fire him. Theres no conversation
whatsoever in the white house. Are you going to fire Robert Mueller . No, im not. What else . What are you surprised . For the 1,000th time, we have no intentions of firing bob mueller. The most high ranking federal official in that series of clips is the one that we know is lying on this. Just to follow up, what both of the guests have said tonight, there is a very strong motive here and that motive all relates to michael flynn. If you follow the timeline in this, why was it that he fired comey . Because comey didnt drop the investigation into michael flynn. Michael flynn back in December Of 2016 was involved in a conversation with a Russian Ambassador that he later lied about in january. The evidence is pretty clear that donald trump knew that flynn lied at the time. He didnt know before hand because flynn didnt know what he was going to be questioned
about. But then on that may 17, after comey is fired, suddenly Robert Mueller is appointed, and then moments later he takes over the flynn investigation. All of this relates to flynn because trump knows that flynn can nail him and his soninlaw Jared Kushner and all this adds up to why he wanted to stop this investigation dead in its tracks. We sometimes learn from you from the case you lived through, 1973, five days after the president did fire a Special Prosecutor with a probe. And the quote is, president nixon embattled, suspicious and believed the special Prosecutors Office was embarked upon, and you see it there, quote, a political witch hunt. And donald trump plagerizes this from Richard Nixon. This would have been a bigger bloodbath than the Saturday Night Massacre. Because at least the Justice Department remained intact after cox, the Special Prosecutor was fired. In fact Elliott Richardson and mr. Ruckleshouse, the special deputy, Nixon Administration couldnt take over the Department Of Justice and insert their own people. Here, i think, and i really believe, that it Wasnt Just Mueller that was going to be fired. It was going to be rosenstein, it was going to be the Attorney General, and it was going to be Everybody Else that was in that hierarchy and it was clearly trumps plan to put all of his own people into that Department Of Justice and basically take it over and gut the rule of law that we have in this country. And barbara, this brings us to another foundational constitutional text, im speaking of course of the book Fire And Fury and im joking, theres not a lot of law there, but there are extensive passages there of steve bannon, when the book came out, it was like, gosh, i think that man runs his mouth a lot. But bannon is quoted as saying, fine, he thinks he can do anything, he can take out rosenstein and take out the next he allegedly told the people youll end up with the Career People who are, quote, even worse for you, barbara . I think the Career People are those who are going to adhere to the rule of law, adhere to professionalism and make sure things are handled fairly. It is a little bit naive by saying that youre going to fire Robert Mueller and end the investigation, because these are Career People who are going to do their mission, who are going to follow the rule of law, and
follow the evidence where it leads. I dont think youve got those thousands of Career Employees who are there, unless you can appoint people at the highest levels of leadership. Thats why i sometimes worry if Jeff Sessions were to go and a new Attorney General would come in place who would be supervising the russia investigation, that person could have some influence on the outcome. Absolutely. Barbara mcquaid and Nick Ackerman. Coming up, theres new reporting on what President Trump was doing behind the scenes on this, i have an exclusive interview on ken starr and our Special Report on trump and this Richard Nixon president. What the law says about why trump cant fire mueller. Thats my Special Report tonight. And all of this news coming out of the Stormy Daniels interview, and reported hush money paid after this alleged liaison with trump. Have you signed a Nondisclosure Agreement . I dont know. Im ari melber, youre watching the beat on msnbc. American. I had no idea. Just to know this is what im made of, this is where my ancestors came from. And i absolutely want to know more about my native american heritage. Its opened up a whole new world for me. Discover the story only your dna can tell. Order your kit now at ancestrydna. Com. A farmers market. Ve whats in this kiester. A fire truck. Even a marching band. And if i can get comfortable talking about this kiester, then you can get comfortable using preparation h. For any sort of discomfort in yours. Preparation h. Get comfortable with it. gasp singsong budget meeting sweet. If you compare last quarter to this quarter. Various mmm. Its no wonder everything seems a little better with the creamy taste of philly, made with fresh milk and real cream. With the creamy taste the winter of 77. Uring i first met james in 5th grade. We got married after college. And had twin boys. But then one night, a truck didnt stop. But thanks to our forester, neither did our story. And thats why well always drive a subaru. Todays news doesnt always happen today. The story rocking the Trump White House and bordering an illegal attempt to Fire Bob Mueller began in on2017. It was the time when trump was thinking about Muzzling Comey ahead of pending testimony. Is the white house going to evoke Executive Privilege to prevent james comey from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee next week . I dont know how theyre going to respond. Four days later, trump was ti still getting pressed about it. What do you want to say to jim comey ahead of his testimony . I wish him luck. On june 8, comey dramatically
refe revealed his story under oath. He asked specifically for loyalty in the context of asking me to stay. Despite your independence, he kept coming back to i need loyalty, i expect loyalty. Have you ever had any of those kinds of requests before for anyone else youve worked forz in the government . No. Trump denied that account and said there would be nothing wrong with demanding loyalty, a key trump ally made waves by openly stating what we now know was attempted at the time. I think hes considering perhaps terminating the Special Counsel. I think hes weighing that option. I think its pretty clear by what one of his lawyers said on television recently. And by june 13, Jeff Sessions was pairing con claiming the firing was about the clinton email case which wasnt true,
within a day the Washington Post reporting that trump was being investigated for obstructi obstruction. We now know trump tried to oust mueller in june when all of these things were going south and all the questions to have Authorities Say he was not under investigation but lew up in his face with Authorities Saying he was. A man with firsthand experience on these types of challenges, he worked on ken starrs team of investigators as associate independent counsel. Do the New York Times reports suggest that trump was trying to do something wrong . It certainly does, ari, it suggests that trump that this was not a one off situation, as where he first asked for comeys loyalty, and then when he asked
comey secondarily to find it in his heart to give flynn a pass and it also shows that it was another one off when he said that if he had known that sessions was going to recuse himself, he would never have put him in the position of Attorney General. This is a man that now has been in office for about six months time. And he could he might be able to credibly claim in the first new days that he was sort of naive about the ways of washington, him being just a real estate a tycoon in new york, he cant say that with a straight face any longer by june of 2017. Youre saying big difference between a slow learner and a no learner . Thats right. And then you look at this don mcgahn situation, the white House Counsel. Did he have any other choice if
this it would have been an unlawful order . I dont think he did. I think he did the right thing. Did the right thing, but did he do the thing you basically had to do . Well, thats right. When your boss tells you that he wants you to do something that you know in your heart is probability in all likelihood illegal, and its a disservice to the office that youre supposed to serve, then your job is to say, if you do that, im going to resign, im not going to follow that order. Which is what Elliott Richardson did and when mr. Rucklehouse did it. Chuck rosenberg was a Chief Of Staff to that fbi director jim comey and exfederal prosecutor. Youre known for being concise, which works for the law and in
these interviews, do you join in the view that bluntly that was the only thing that he could have done given the story in the New York Times . Its pretty clear to me what the president asked mcgahn to do assuming the times report is correct, would have been in furtherance of an obstruction, so the answer is no, im not going to do it. And then you look at these congressional hearings which at times can be dry, but ultimately provide the Public Record under oath, which is incredibly important in a democracy with the rule of law. Take a look as we probe into june, look at Rod Rosenstein, were going to play some sound of him talking about everything we know that was sort of aimed at him, this scud missile that mcgahn was willing to resign over. If you receive an order from President Trump to fire the Special CounselRobert Mueller, will you do that . It doesnt matter who gives
me an order, what that order is, if there isnt good cause, i would not fire the Special Counsel. Thats mcgahn saying under oath that he wouldnt do it. So if he had got on would he then also have some obligation to inform the Special Counsel of this attempt . I dont know that he has to inform the Special Counsel of the attempt. In fact he might on good reason and principle not notify the Special Counsel, because he would want him to function as independently as possible. I have known rosen stein for years and he would have said no or he would have resigned. And bruce, when you take it all together and look at the republican response, it has gone from focusing on basically random fbi agents to increasingly suggesting that the whole fbi is suspect, that maybe mueller has unstated conflicts,
do you think the republicans who at least are taking that view are potentially damaging the independence needed for this probe . I do. And i also think that its, you know, to use a word that one of your earlier guests used, i think it demonstrates a consciousness of guilt at least when mr. Trump makes reference to or trashes fbi agents or other people that are investigating him. Theres an old saying in the law that when the facts are against you, you argue the law to the jury, when the law is against you, you argument the facts, and when theyre both against you, you argue the case with the prosecutors. Up ahead, does Donald TrumpsFailure To Fire Mueller shed light on what the right wing is doing . And my Special Report later
tonight, Why Nixon Case could have been on don mcgahns mind and could be bad news for donald trump. Get ready for centrum microworkouts. The bottle curl. The twist n turn. The stretch n grab. The gummy squish. Centrum micronutrients fuel your body from the inside out. Grab a centrum and join in. Repeat daily. Change. Most of the time it most of the time. Y. Sail with the 1 cruise line in alaska, princess cruises, come back new. Exwith a classleading8 31 mpg combined estimate. D lease the 2018 nx 300 for 339 month for 36 months. Experience amazing at your lexus dealer. The Energy Conscious whopeople among usle . Say small actions can add up to something. Humongous. A little thing here. A little thing there. Starts to feel like a badge maybe millions can wear. Who are all these caretakers, advocates too . Turns out, its californians its me and its you. Dont stop now, its easy to add to the routine. Join Energy Upgrade california and do your thing. The other top story tonight, how this news that donald trump ordered bob mueller fired is putting heat on some conservatives who have defended a lot of other trump moves but maybe not this one. Context was key, mueller was a republican appointed fbi director, who was praised by top conservatives when he was originally appointed. When top aides began flipping, many trump allies pounced. Members of Congress Calling for his recusal without any big evidence and a drum beat began to push for Robert Muellers ousting. Robert mueller needs to go. Mueller needs to go, 100 . The president should actually demand that he resign. The American People should demand that he resign. Mueller has a legal obligation to recuse himself. The deep state has its clutches in, the Clinton Machine has their clutches in and its been the special impeachment counsel from the beginning. Mueller needs to get out. Get out. That last line actually is key, this is amassing, youre going to have to see this, when this news broke last night, first sean hannity denies it, then he struggles to process it and think it through on live tv. And he goes from the denial to arguing that trump has the authority and then he says, well, actually, maybe, um, this is a story best dealt with after a 24hour pause. At this hour, the New York Times is trying to distract you. They have a story that trump Wanted Mueller fired sometime last june and our sources, and i have checked in with many of
them, theyre not confirming that tonight. And the president s attorney dismissed the story and says, nope, no comment, were not going there. And how many times has the New York Times and others gotten it wrong . All right, so we have sources and i just confirmed to ed henry, that yeah, maybe donald trump wanted to fire the special co counsel for conflict, does he not have the right to raise this type of question . Well deal with this tomorrow night. Well deal with this right now. Democrat from north dakota and Timothy Cross who is the Managing Editor of a publication with a great name, if i may say so. Tiffany, well deal with this tomorrow night. Did we see a rare moment of actual revelation of watching sean hannity think that through . I love when he said he checked with his sources and his own White House Correspondent ed henry had confirmed the story himself. This is what i find interesting
about sean hannity and a lot of voices from the right. These are people who have championed Law Enforcement for the last few years, they have been big Blue Lives Matter and how dare anybody disrespect Law Enforcement. Except for this specific Law Enforcement officer and this and right after that, sean hannity said never mind well talk about this tomorrow night and they immediately went to the shiny object and went to a car chase scene. Tiffany, im going to cover the car chase tomorrow. And youll get a spike in ratings, im sure, every time you do that. If i need a daybreak, eveif every time i hear about a story i got 24 hours, thats quite a news division. Our democracy was attacked bid a foreigned ed adversary, a these good patriots who tune into fox news every single
night, they want to get to the bottom of this. The silence is deafening and when they want to talk about its just to undermine the investigators and they have their own investigators investigating the investigators. Its ridiculous. Senator dorgan, you were in office and a lot of people in office make it a habit, as tiffany was mentioning, the salute and praise the people who put on a uniform and risk their lives, thats local police, thats the fbi, and obviously other people who do it around the world as well as in the u. S. How do you say this is not a blatant salve raj this is one more chapter in this psycho drama that doesnt ever seem to end and this chapter is even worse than the rest of them. And them just say that obviously this president seems to think that the rules dont apply to him and probably the law doesnt apply to him either. I want to say this, i served in the house and the senate for 30 years, and my special scorn is
reserved for those in the house and senate who come to the Television Cameras, breathless, you know those old stories never buy something from somebody whos out of breath, breathless, to try to destroy the reputation of bob mueller. They should hang their head in disgrace, this was a man who was a u. S. Marine, a republican, someone who served the fbi, the head of the fbi during 9 11, a remarkable patriot that we ought to be thanking and these people are trying to destroy his reputation, shame on them. Do you think the republicans should stand up given this new report . Who knows which republicans might or might not stand up. But as i said, i see a lot of them rushing breathlessly to the Television Camera to support whatever donald trump says or does. The president says things that are demonstrably true, despite the fact that he knows theyre true. Hes not believable at this
point, ari. I wish things were different, but he has no credibility, hes not believable, now hes trying to set us up for a constitutional crisis. This country deserves better than that. As were speaking, Air Force One is landing, this is the president returning from davos, where he spoke about International Economic issues, trade and immigration. A trip that i think it is fair to say was completely overshadowed by the Bombshell News at home, yet again the russia probe dominating over the story is that that he wanted to. He briefly responded to questions on it from davos, and were looking this evening the landing of Air Force One, and the president who descends, according to the normal practice will head to the white house, he may speak to a gaggle of reporters. As we watch that tiffany, this is as i mentioned a trip that was overshadowed. I want to play for you briefly
the shift. Because im we just spoke to a former aid, to ken starr, he initially said dont go after mueller, he has since joined the bandwagon that Senator Dorgan was just criticizing, and paul ryan has struck a different note, take a listen. Firing Special Prosecutors tends not to work, as we all learned from watergate. I think the best case for the president is to be vindicated by allowing the investigation to go on independently, so the best advise would be to let Robert Mueller do his job . If thats your position, dont you stand up and say, it sounds like you came so close someone was going to resign over it, dont do that . At this point i think the republicans are trying to play whacamole to try and play down on your position, and on the other side, their silence is deafening. Nothing from mccarthy, nothing from are paul ryan, nothing from mcconnell and im not surprised at this point, i think we have to stop waiting for them to speak up, i dont think its going to happen. Thank you both and well go to break looking at these live pictures of Air Force One landing back from the president s trip to davos, and as we keep an eye on that, we will give you an update on nixon case that could save bob mueller even if the president still tries to fire him. How do you win at business . Who wouldnt want a chance to live longer. Opdivo nivolumab . Over 40,000 patients have been prescribed opdivo immunotherapy. Opdivo can cause your Immune System to attack normal organs and tissues in your body and affect how they work. This may happen during or after treatment has ended, and may become serious and lead to death. See your doctor right away if you experience new or worsening cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; diarrhea; severe stomach pain or tenderness; severe nausea or vomiting; extreme fatigue; constipation; excessive thirst or urine; swollen ankles; loss of appetite; rash; itching; headache; confusion; hallucinations; muscle or joint pain; flushing; fever; or weakness, as this may keep these problems from becoming more serious. These are not all the possible side effect of opdivo. Tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including Immune System problems, or if youve had an organ transplant, or lung, breathing, or liver problems. A chance to live longer. Because who wouldnt want. That . Ask your doctor about opdivo. Thank you to all involved in opdivo clinical trials. Donald trump ordered bob mueller fired, a plan that was squashed by trumps own lawyer. Tonight many are asking what if trump wasnt stopped, Would Mueller actually have been fired . Could he still be fired . Is this bombshell New York TimesReport Rocking The White House tonight as President Trump returns from davos, is this story fundamentally about the past or the future . This important story tonight, i have a break down for donald trump if his own employees dont stop his efforts to oust Robert Mueller, a federal judge could. This is the most important check on a run away president. And it comes from the sordid history from the only president forced from office by Impeachment Proceedings and based on what we learned this week in the times, this is a story don mcgahn and rod
rosenstein know well and one donald trump may not know. Trumps orders to fire mueller and the fbi director were met with resignation threats, thats in comparison to the Saturday Night Massacre in 1973, when nixons attempt to fire a Prosecutor Led to a series of resignations calling into question whether nixon was running a criminal enterprise. But the part of this controversy that applies the most to trump is actually rarely emphasized because not only was the massacre a public controversy, it also led to a judge finding nixons firing of that prosecutor illegal. Thats a precedent that mueller, mcgahn and rosenstein all know, it all began with this shockwave against the mueller of that era, a prosecutor named Archibald Cox who nixon tried to fire and then literally sent men with guns to try to close his office. Good evening, the country
tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in its history. The president has fired the man you just saw, the special watergate prosecutor, Archibald Cox and he has sent fbi agents to the office of the special prosecution staff and to the Attorney General and the Deputy Attorney general and the president has ordered the fbi to seal off those offices. Seal off those offices. Now that was called a massacre because so many people resigned. Rather than carry out the potentially illegal order. But then what . Public outrage, criticism . But what happens. Some of the next legal moves are actually often forgotten in that history. Here is some rarely seen footage of a man known for a lot of fights in public life, ralph nader. He challenged nixons firing in court just three days after the massacre. Tomorrow we will file in Federal District court a
complaint challenging the removal of mr. Cox from his position as Special Prosecutor and the attempted abolition of the office of Special Prosecutor by acting Attorney GeneralRobert Bourque under the command of Richard Nixon. His argument there is what don mcgahn surely had on his mind, a president ordering the firing of a prosecutor investigating the president may be the first word on the matter, but in our democracy, the last word goes to the courts. The American People are confronted with a man who has consciously authorized crimes condoned crimes, committed crimes, covered up crimes and now has overthrown the legal arrangement which was working to prosecute these crimes fairly and with due process of law. What this and most decisive Obstruction Of Justice by Richard Nixon means is that every citizen in this land must strive to reclaim the rule of
law which this tyrant has been destroying month by month, strand by strand. Our founders did not oust king geor george, iii in order for us to suffer king richard. King richard, or king donald. In t it ultimately took members of congress to fire, and it actually came quickly, within a month, the federal judge ruled nixons firing of that prosecutor was illegal. Nixon argued, like many trump allies today that the president , he kind of runs the federal government, so whats the big deal if he fires federal employees . But no, the courts ruled the deal is, this is a nation of laws and not even a president gets to pick the people investigating themselves which would put the president above the law. The judge ruled in that case, the prosecutor does not serve at
the president s pleasure and was not under, quote, president ial control. That rules lays out a rationale that could be used this year if trump does go on to try to get the d. O. J. To fire mueller. In fact mueller may already have, just like ralph nader there, a legal challenge written to his own potential future firing, after all, this is news tonight, but the times Reports Mueller himself learned about it long ago during his interviews and if Don Mcgahn Didnt Personaler himself, he presumably would have told mueller about it in his own november interview. And the battle took a lot more turns, another prosecutor replaced cox and because that prosecutor had a different law that he was operated on than what mueller is operating on today. It is possible that the court could interpret it this way on
the facts and on the president. Just like nixon era, the mueller can only be removed by the personal action of the Attorney General, which is now Rod Rosenstein, since sessions is recused and he can only fire him because of misconduct, dereliction of duty or for cause which has to be in writing. That part is important too, because if righits in writing, court is more likely to reinstate mueller. If you fire an fbi director, and you write that it was because he was mean to hillary, and then the president confesses, no, it was actually all about the russia probe. He made a recommendation, but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. That admission was not just problematic for the obstruction defense, its the kind of evidence that could get a judge to reinstate mueller, even if the Trump Administration goes on to try to fire him like trump wanted and Rod Rosenstein knows that. Bob mueller knows that. Does donald trump . Tbd. In the Knicnixon Case The Prose ultimately turned from his firing to the white house tapes and dealt a stinging loss to president nixon and Many Americans felt a win for democracy. Good morning, the Supreme Court has just ruled on the Tape Controversy and heres carlson who has that ruling. It is a nonmaus decision, doug, just as rehnquist took no part in the decision, ordering the president of the United States to turn over the tapes. Wow. Thats what one end of a constitutional crisis can look
like. You heard the reporter say unanimous decision and the anchor noted nixon appointee rehnquist because rehnquist worked for recused today because we have rules. Now that nixon case of course, turned on secret tapes which the courts forced the president to turn over. We dont know what the mueller case will turn on. Its not over. There could be secret evidence. It could excull pay the donald trump and make him look more innocent. We dont know. This weeks evidence makes him look for reckless and less innocent. As for tapes, they actually do exist in this case. Theyre just not secret. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it. And in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a
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sports than i do. Is that a fair sports point . Its fair. Who obviously needs to fall back, chuck. Google home. Obviously, we know about google home. Its sold millions of units. Its a speaker that allows you to talk directly to google. And get information and play music. However, when you ask google home who obviously jesus is, it doesnt have a definition. However, it does know who obviously satan is. It knows who obviously muhammad is and buddha and even beyonce, but jesus christ, and beyonce is a religious figure to some people. But not jesus. No definition. To be fair, asking who obviously is god is a tough question right, chuck . Its a tough question. Gods omitted, as well. Look, we went for a super shortfallback. We had a lot of news this week. But i want to thank chuck and
madison for playing along. We will be right back on the beat. For every hour that youre idling in your car, youre sending about half a gallon of gasoline up in the air. That amounts to about 10 pounds of Carbon Dioxide every week. malo hutson growth is good, but when it starts impacting our quality of air and quality of life, thats a problem. So forwardthinking cities like sacramento are investing in streets that are smarter and greener. The solution was right under our feet. Asphalt. Or to be more precise, intelligent asphalt. By embedding sensors into the pavement, as well as installing cameras on traffic lights, we will be able to analyze the flow of traffic. Then that data runs across our network, and we use it to optimize the timing of lights, so that travel times are shorter. Who knew asphalt could help save the environment . Shortfallback. We had a lot of news this week. But i want to thank chuck and madison for playing along. We will be right back on the beat. Let me tell you one more thing on the topic of russian meddling. This Sunday Kara Swisher and i have a town hall with the ceos of google of youtube about the future of tech and protecting our elections. When we look at elections and stuff, democracy depends on these things working well. All of us are obviously very