Page 2 - Appointing Mueller News Today

A recap of the days news.

>> jeremy diamond at the white house. thank you very much. trump attorney rudy giuliani is defending efforts by the presidents legal team to discredit the russia investigation. giuliani claims the basis for robert muellers investigation is invalid. he points to the memos written by fired fbi director james comey. >> you get the comey thing which is a leak of a confidential memo which is illegal for an fbi official do. that becomes the basies for appointing mueller -- the basis for appointing m...

Hostage taking. and that can embolden more threats and hostage taking. rod rosenstein, he may have been slow to learning that lesson about house republicans. this is the man, after all, who effectively got bullied into joining trumps cover story for comeys firing. you see his name there on that infamous letter about it. and then of course he fled from that mess by appointing mueller. but lately, and this is very important tonight, lately rod rosenstein says hes had enough. >> i can tell you the ...

The regulations require a crime. criminal activity be investigated. no crime or criminal activity was stated in the memorandum appointing mueller. thats because there was no crime. rod rosenstein pointed mueller to get rid of a hot potato. it had nothing to do whatsoever with criminal activity. he didnt want the responsibility, like jeff sessions had done, by appointing mr. hubert to investigate crimes inside the justice department about fisa. rod should have done that. he didnt do that. he appo...

They do not set a punishment or sentence. instead, grand juries reveal evidence. they issue subpoenas and basically determine if prosecutors have enough evidence to charge someone with a crime. now, if the grand jury does think there is enough evidence, they issue an indictment. after that, the prosecution can formally charge a subject, and then the trial can officially begin. and the defense can finally present evidence, something they cant do while the grand jury is in session. now, lets take ...

Insider or bloomberg news, that wook way outside the scope of the mandate, and we would object to that. >> ever since president trump agreed in an interview with the "new york times" that special counsel muellers investigation would cross a red line if it looked at his familys finances. theyve said that mueller has a limited perview, but rob rosensteins letter appointing mueller as special counsel gave mueller authority to pursue, and i quote, "any links and/or coordination between the russian g...

Exonerate donald trump, its also not his job to look under every rock there possibly is to see if he, you know, cheated on his homework in 1962. >> i just think mueller -- >> which im going to take a guess he probably did. which you know what, i may have as well. >> procedurally, hes in a very awkward spot now because trump has eventually said i will fire him if he gets into this area of inquiry. if the investigation leads him there, im sure hell feel compelled to proceed and risk being fired bu...

He is highly respected. a very good guy, very smart guy. the democrats like him. the republicans like him. he made a recommendation. but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. 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. >> now, that interview, when you listen to it, it did more than just throw the justice department under the bus. it made the justic...

This is the man, after all, who effectively got bullied into joining trumps cover story for comeys firing. you see his name there on that infamous letter about it. and then of course he fled from that mess by appointing mueller. but lately, and this is very important tonight, lately rod rosenstein says hes had enough. >> i can tell you the different people who have been making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time, and i think they should understand by now, the department...

That the justice department violated the law by appointing mueller. ill speak with democratic congressman eric swalwell of the house intelligence and the judiciary committees. our correspondents, specialists and guests, theyre standing by with full coverage. lets begin with the stunning battle between president trump and his former chief strategist steve bannon, touched off by an explosive new book about the trump white house. lets go straight to our senior white house correspondent jim acosta...