overseeing the probe. according the times it s unclear how whitaker responded. there s 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 president s inaugural committee. the times adds trump sour eedn whitaker. whitaker could face bigger problems. he recently told a congressional committee under oath that the president had never pressured him regarding any investigation. at no time has white house asked for nor have i provided any promises or commitments concerning the special counsel s investigation or any other investigation. reporter: whitaker is now
and say, you can t 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 didn t make commitments or promised to the president. when we probed about whether the president said, whether he expressed dissatisfaction or opinions about the investigations, he sort of avoided that answer. he created the impression that there was no discussion with the president about any investigation when we know if this reporting is true that that is inaccurate. the chairman of the committee sent a letter to mr. wlhitaker requesting clarification on a number of issues and indicated if he didn t provide that, we would have him back before the committee in a deposition. he clearly misled the co
cohen and asking whitaker to bring back berman. i think this is just more evidence of a president who really doesn t understand the separation of powers in this country. he cannot ask people to do things personally for him for his own benefit. these people work for the united states of america. they do not work personally for donald trump. there s also some fascinating details. david, you read the article in the new york times about the rollout of the firing of michael flynn, the president s national security adviser and how they came up with all sorts of convoluted answers, including at one point the legal counsel at white house drafting a memo that sean spicer had actually gone into the briefing room and misled reporters and the american public about the details. right. i think we still need to know more about that as well. i think one thing that strikes me about the resignation or the
congressman, thanks for joining us. i want to get your reaction to the new york times reporting that the president asked the acting attorney general, matt whitaker, if the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york could unrecuse himself to take control of the michael cohen investigation. does this rise, this request, if it s confirmed, rise to the level of obstruction of justice? i think there s no question that if this reporting is accurate, this is another data point of an ongoing effort by this president to impede this investigation and to obstruct justice. we should recall that there are 199 criminal charges that have been filed. there have been 37 defendants. there have been 7 conviction s and 4 people sentences to prison. the president described this as a witch hunt. is clearly concerned about the southern district of new york. to call up the attorney general
will your committee subpoena whitaker to answer additional questions? yes. i think the chairman made it clear he expected mr. whitaker to return for a deposition. if he doesn t do that voluntarily, the committee will exercise its authority to require him to appear. before he left our committee room, there were many unanswered questions, contradictions in his testimony, evasive answers the chairman made it clear we have a responsibility to get the truth. the american people deserve that. he is going to be back before the committee for that purpose. according to this new york times report, whitaker told associates over at the justice department that part of his role was to, quote, jump on a grenade for the president. he told others that the southern district of new york prosecutors needed what he called adult supervision. do you think those comments reflect any direction he might have received from the president? it certainly reflects the direction he thought he should take at th