Page 732 - Commitments News Today

Of the cohen investigation that had implicated mr. trump. p berman was already recused from being involved. house democrats are talking about calling whitaker back for further testimony. >> at no time has the white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsels investigation or any other investigation. >> did the president lash out to you on or about december 8th, 2018, to discuss the case before the southern district of new york where he was iden...

Extent of an even more sustained, more secret assault of mr. trump on the machinery of federal law enforcement. perhaps the biggest revelation in this piece is that trump may have tried to interfere with the investigation involving his former lawyer, michael cohen, about hush money payments, youll recall, made during the 2016 campaign. that investigation is being handled by the southern district of new york, which is, despite its somewhat misleading name, in effect, the manhattan branch of the u...

York. a court approved him as the u.s. attorney. we know he has stepped aside. he has been recuse from that piece of the michael cohen probe, on other pieces, for instance the prosecutors investigating the inaugural committee, he is not recuse. trump was concerned, in particular about the michael cohen hush money payment issue. when mit kerr wwhitaker was ask president about his house judiciary testimony, he tried to thread the needle on what he would and wouldnt say. when it came to his convers...

Overseeing the probe. according "the times" its unclear how whitaker responded. theres no evidence he took steps to intervene despite telling associates he knew part of his job was to jump on a grenade for the president. whitaker remarks the prosecutors required adult supervision according to "the times." while burman is recused from this probe, he is not from another that could touch trump. one looking into the presidents inaugural committee. "the times" adds trump sour eedn whitaker. whitaker ...

And say, you cant you install someone favor to believe me to this investigation is completely inappropriate, clearly an effort to impede or undermine the investigation and protect himself. would constitute obstruction of justice if true. >> matt whitaker testified before your committee, the house judiciary committee earlier in the month. do you believe he pure jer jper himself? >> he said, i didnt make commitments or promised to the president. when we probed about whether the president said, whe...

Or any other investigation. >> of course, our reporting wasnt that he made any promises. our reporting is that the president was venting at him and frustrated about what was going on in new york and at the justice department. the justice department has just put out a statement backing what whitakers testimony had been there, reiterating that he didnt make any promises or commitments concerning the special counsels investigation or any other investigation and saying he stands by his testimony. br...

Specific. some are suggesting per j perjured himself. >> the white house asked for no promises. he didnt say they didnt toss the idea out there in a discussion. if "the new york times" reporting is right, here is the problem for whitaker. even if he ultimately, as gloria was saying, did the right thing and didnt interfere, if he is covering tracks for the president now and if the special counsels investigation or if one of the congressional committees knows who the sources are for "the new york ...

Investigation into him a hoax. privately, we discover, he is worried about it. what he was trying to do was place a loyalist in the job. he felt he could be ensured he would be protected. the justice department doesnt work that way. whitaker apparently did not work that way. so the president wasnt able to do what he wanted to do. this is somebody we have to sort of take a step back and understand that he may well have been panicked about all of this. the reason hemueller investigation is that he...

. we are back. this is cnn. im brooke baldwin. the breaking news, this is an update. the "new york times" has been reporting president trump spoke with his acting attorney general matt whitaker about getting the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york to recuse himself from the michael cohen investigation. now we have reaction from the doj, this is what they are saying, quoting, under health, then acting attorney general whitaker stated that at no time has the white house asked for...

The president, you know, should be embarrassed for himself that he constantly does this improper stuff. but does it rise to the level of criminality? not yet. >> pamela brown is standing by, too, our senior white house correspondent. pamela, we talk so much about this president and loyalty as we talk about jeff sessions. we talk about james comey, now were talking matt whitaker and what he did or didnt do with regard to, you know, influencing the cohen examination. what say you? >> yeah. we were...