the firing of jim comey, as i understand it, this was a get to know you kind of engagement, meeting between the two of them. and in my mind it is completely inappropriate to ask a federal employee, a career employee, any employee who did you vote for? that's just completely inappropriate. and the other thing is, just -- this is kind of typical, rather ambiguous tap dance answer that he gave. and so and again, i'm pretty sure that andy remembers and may have recorded just as jim comey did his conversations with the president. >> so i think it's very regrettable. >> we're at this quit cal point in the mueller investigation. pluler is set to question steve bannon on flynn and comey, their
ore, the doj employee under scrutiny is a career employee. he's run a drug enforcement program for years. no word to know if it was a professional or personal capacity. i think the rush is judgment is unwarranted and political. it's not really what we expect to see in the jus disdepartmet t department. >> you've seen over time, the rolling effort, over the last week at least, the charges, nonstop charges. people swinging wildly at bob mueller, at the investigation, and it all seemed to follow the news that's pretty devastating for the white house that they've got mike flynn cooperating. how much is tied to the fact that they feel the walls closing in? >> the closer mueller gets to the oval office, the more we see these efforts to delegitimize
left, right or crazy. is that true? we need to keep people on their posts? what do you think? >> i definitely think that's true to a point. i certainly gave it my best shot. i would have walked out on january 20th if i disagreed with that sentiment. i think the standard i would use for anyone outside the white house is, do they feel they can still be effective? can they do their jobs ethically and morally? and by that, i'll give you the example of the olc torture opinion in early 2000s, office of legal council, and the moral responsibility of every career employee in that office was to have nothing do with that memo. my understanding is it was handled strictly by the politicals. then the third element in the standard i would use is, can you still speak the truth. >> yeah. >> and if you search your soul and decide that all three of those are true, then we do need some people staying in the government. >> so it seems to be that the
general eric holder for this issue to be addressed by the department of justice, by the civil rights division. i think it's a good sign that attorney general sessions did make that commitment to open a federal investigation. it will be handled in large part by career staff who lead the civil rights division, the acting u.s. attorney in the western district of virginia is not a political appointee. he's a career employee who's been in that office for many years and is deeply experienced. and like always, i have great confidence in the career employees of the justice department. >> quickly to you, seema, are you concerned jeff sessions might get in the way of an impartial civil rights investigation here? >> no, i'm not. because he's not handling it directly, right? the case isn't going to be on his desk, it's going to be with high level staffers. i don't think so. and what else was he supposed to do? this is the right thing. this was a public crisis. virginia was in a state of
yesterday, proud to be here today and pro to work here tomorrow. >> credit to both of them for answering questions. they've got to be disappointed that today should have been a big day, a win for them like last week, that massive bust around the opioid epidemic over 100 arrests, but matt, you see the two gentleman standing there smiling ear to ear loving this job after the president basically lit them up. >> i think the response from the attorney general and deputy attorney general was absolutely pathetic -- >> how do you really feel? >> yeah, let's set aside the question of whether they have self-respect and wanted to defend their integrity after the president attacked them. he didn't just attack them, the department of justice and independence and mission and rule of law. they have an obligation to the men and women they represent, to every career employee at the department of justice to stand up for its mission and push back on the president and say, you know, we will not be intimidated and not be bullied. the people that work here will pursue these investigations and
for 20 years and mr. mccabe as a career employee of the department of justice, our default answer is when that's our default rule. >> is that the rule for the president of the united states, as well? >> i don't know what. >> because that is what the questions are being asked about, reports that nobody has laid to rest here that the president of the united states has intervened directly in an ongoing fbi investigation and we've gotten no answer from any of you, and frankly, we've at least heard frerd director coats and admiral rog hers they've not been asked to recuse an answer because of director mueller. i don't understand why we can't get that. >> i'm not asking for director rogers or coats. i'm answering for director mccabe and myself with regard to the department of justice. >> senator lankford. >> director mccabe, do you feel confident at this point the fbi is fully cooperating with special counsel for any requests
government call a detail but it happens, yes. >> and your work there, can you describe the -- can you describe what you did but also what the relationship was between an agency like the justice department and fincen, if the department wanted to use documents that fincen might have, how would that process work? >> i served as a senior adviser to the deputy director of fincen. the deputy director is now serving as the acting director of fincen. and i served as a senior adviser. i went over there as a career employee. it was not on a detail. justice did not send me. but i went over and was hired by treasury to serve in that role. with respect to your question about could other agencies get information from fincen, absolutely.
agency like the justice department and fincen, if the department wanted to use documents that fincen might have, how would that process work? >> i served as a senior adviser to the deputy director of fincen. the deputy director is now serving as the acting director fincen. and i served as a senior adviser. i went over there as a career employee. it was not on a detail. justice did not send me. but i went over and was hired by treasury to serve in that role. with respect to your question about could other agencies get information from fincen, absolutely. fincen has the authority to share information that they collect which they collect under the secrecy act and patriot act from financial institutions and they have the ability, with that data, to analyze it to sort of
the next person is clearly one who will be beholden to the law and to the constitution and not in any way sub servient to the president. >> the request for a special prosecutor, you mean an appointed special prosecutor under the department of justice, appointed by rod rosenstein, who is the deputy attorney general? >> either mr. rosenstein, who has the statutory authority, or his designee, which could be, i think in the safest circumstance, the most senior career employee at the department of justice. i'm trying to take the politics out of the situation as much as possible. every day there's a new revelation to suggest that this is way too political, raising serious questions about whether this is going forward following the rule of law. >> senator, i appreciate your circumspection here and your care.
the reality of the challenge we face. and the reality of the challenge we face is the awesome need for a special prosecutor as quickly as possible to take over this investigation and to conduct it in a professional way, a non-political way. secondly, i would hope that the white house, after this revelation, will not even consider sending a name of an fbi director until we have time to reflect on this and make sure the next person is clearly one who will be beholden to the law and to the constitution and not in any way sub servient to the president. >> the request for a special prosecutor, you mean an appointed special prosecutor under the department of justice, appointed by rod rosenstein, who is the deputy attorney general? >> either mr. rosenstein, who has the statutory authority, or his designee, which could be, i think in the safest circumstance, the most senior career employee at the department of justice. i'm trying to take the politics