Page 18 - Oversight Function News Today

What were seeing here in the halls of congress or a hearing room of congress? >> well, i agree with frank, that vladimir putin must be very happy, as well as russian intelligence services because of the discord thats being concern in the halls of congress here. and that mr. trump continues to pursue policies and actions in making statements that very much are in keeping with what russian foreign policy intelligence objectives are. so i think that mr. putin must be looking with quite a bit of gle...

>> career staff that some are concerned about. not handing over documents that have been asked for a subpoenaed by congress. do they have the obligation and are they trying to cover something up? >> very different question. i dont think it is the career staff making final decisions on what documents to forward. but im not, i would say its very traditional for the department of justice to decline to get documents from a pending criminal investigation. here theyve given many more than conventional...

Have any conflicts of interest? >> chairman if there were any conflicts of interests brought to our attention i would discuss with mr. mueller and there could be review within the department if there were credible allegation of a conflict of interest. and so im not aware of any disqualifying conflict of interest. >> and msnbc contributor u.s. attorney and former fbi official and joins me now. thanks for being here. >> my pleasure. >> what did you make of what we witnessed yesterday? no surprised...

Probe. >> g.o.p. chairman. those are fair balances. >> laura: run over to the documents. the documents -- i hear what you say but, tom. >> republicans stop fighting over documents. they control all three houses. >> laura: they want to know why this investigation was really started. the mueller popularity his approval has gone down from 47% according to cnn poll in december now its down to 41%. obviously comeys numbers are in the toilet 32% of people supporting him. is it no wonder really that pe...

Probe. >> g.o.p. chairman. those are fair balances. >> laura: run over to the documents. the documents -- i hear what you say but, tom. >> republicans stop fighting over documents. they control all three houses. >> laura: they want to know why this investigation was really started. the mueller popularity his approval has gone down from 47% according to cnn poll in december now its down to 41%. obviously comeys numbers are in the toilet 32% of people supporting him. is it no wonder really that pe...

>> senior justice officials said the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, mr. ray, and the nations intelligence chief who was oversight of the 15th agencies, the director of national intelligence dan coats have offered and look forward to briefing congressional leadershipn thursday which of course is passed is newly imposed path deadline. >> harris: thank you very much. from republican chairman jason chaffetz of utah joins now. so a deadline and an expectation. what you make of it? >> i expec...

Oversight activity is bipartisan it can serve on check and any effort to exclude one party or the other threatens to undermine the oversight function and sends the wrong signal about the professional nonpolitical manner that must govern intelligence activities. how important is that? >> its important for the perception standpoint. i dont think its important legally at all. perception wise it does help. frankly, with this whole investigation, i mean that horse is so far out of the barn in terms o...

That made a soft approach to those affiliated with the campaign, when i reflect on that, thats the softest possible approach to learn about what was going on and still be able to call it an investigation. and thats what the president seems to have a great deal of concern about. and if i can just expand my concerns a bit more, youve got the issue with this investigation trying to dee legitimatize it. youve got the concern about the security of this particular informant. but frankly, nicolle, alth...

Show. weve got democrats who are terrified of mentioning the "i" word, impeachment, out on the campaign trail. we know nancy pelosi doesnt want them calling for impeachment. but now we have a series of things, and especially this one, the president potentially lying on financial disclosure forms, something for which he could be prosecuted on. democrats can run against republicans, refusing -- in congress, refusing to perform their oversight function. and that is what theyre doing. and that can b...

Rosenstein today, he was today reacting what he heard and been reported with the freedom caucus potentially drawing up articles of impeachment against himself. this is what he said. >> they cant even resist leaking their own draft. i just dont have anything to say about documents like that, that nobody has the courage to put their name on and they leak in that way, but i can tell you, the different people who have been making threats, privately and publicly against me for quite sometime, and i t...