Page 8 - Department Process News Today

There are discussions of masters out there that they have not asked me to open an investigation. >> there have been discussed of matters out there. they have not asked me. but it is plausible that he would not have known. especially on the issue of metadata from members of congress being caught up as part of an investigation? >> so, in this case, although he was very clearly parsing his words there and there were certainly some kind of conversations that perhaps had gone on. it is plausible that...

Law, the supreme court precedent in cases such as clinton versus jones, united states versus richard nixon, established those principles, in the official capacity, so the president has authority under the constitution, the executive power under the constitution, the president as established by the frameworks of the constitution is not above the law, no one is above the law in the united states of america. >> a practical matter, who investigates the president? >> as a practical matter, traditiona...

When theres a conflict of interest in the justice department process. >> its been settled law for 83 years now. early on you said that you would be willing to offer views on long settled cases. can you just tell me if humphrey executor was correctly decided? its long settled precedented, yes. the key different here is whether you will say if something is rightly decided. im struck about this, concerned about it because in your own opinion, in your dissent in phh, you went into a long criticism. ...

Request for preserving documents, that request came from scott schools. when acting deputy ag dana boente had to let the higher ups at the department know he was being called as a witness in the special counsels investigation, that notice went straight to scott schools. look at the handwritten notes in some of these documents. took notes to scott schools. provided to scott schools. scott schools, scott schools, scott schools. for the past year and a half scott schools seems kind of a guardrail a...

Enjoyed, if i can use the word earn joyed, exercised his power in this area and something you see he gets quite a lot of accolades for it. some criticism as well, but something the president with the stroke of his pen is able to do and hes doing it. craig? >> on the screen there, the folks hes pardoned so far. matt, talk about this process. seen the president commute this, pardoned some other folk. talked about pardoning rod blagojevich and martha stewart as well. both worked with the president ...

Got screwed and he wants him out there, he wants him back out there being able to talk on tv, is there any debate these are politically motivated pardons? >> no, no real debate about that. the presidential pardon is political in nature. it is a power that rests with the president and it is an awesome power that rests with the presidency. it is not just dsouza. look at the past pardons this president issued for sheriff joe arpaio in arizona or for scooter libby, the former chief of staff to vice ...

Fitzgerald, a very close personal friend of james comey. used to sleep on comeys couch as a matter of fact. >> and now part of -- kind of on the legal team. >> right. and martha stewart who hes talking about pardoning as well, the prosecutor in that case and want to put the whole case together was comey. he talks about it extensively in his book, how that was a send a message case. i think trump is sending messages to people in his administration, dont worry, ill pardon you, but also slapping th...

President has the right to do this. nobody has to confirm it. there are no checks and balances. this is how donald trump regards the presidency. why arent all my powers like pardon power? >> good point. >> why does anybody have to say anything? so, suddenly hes realized this is something -- >> he found a button he can press. >> he can go like that. >> do what i want. >> i can do what i want. >> good point. >> that is what hes doing now and that is why it is also so scary. >> there is a process f...

Presidents attorney, michael cohen, has had this big question hanging over it. will the president try to fix this for his personal attorney by using his pardon power? the president has already pardoned at least a couple of people without going through any kind of justice department process. there is a whole process at the justice department for dealing with pardons. he has not used that. hes just pardoned people when he felt it. will he do the same thing about the possibility of a michael cohen ...

Trumps appointee to lead the southern district of new york is named jeffrey berman. hes a trump donor. hes somebody who worked on the trump transition. hes somebody who took a personal interview with trump for the job, before he was named to it, which is not the kind of thing presidents typically do was attorneys. hes also not incidentally rudy giulianis law partner. because of all of those things, it was not the worlds greatest shock when we learned that jeffrey berman, also, despite the fact t...