Recusal Question News Today

Dana we miss having colin allred on, congressman from texas 32. Well have him on again. But we had Breaking News with the Attorney General resigning from his position at shepard continuing coverage as the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions has resigned. A replacement is at the ready. The ramifications are many. Reporting begins now from capitol hill. Justice, the wise house and beyond. First to the man that broke the story, john roberts live on the north lawn. John . Only by virtual of our terrific...

>> we have to judge what their product is. the first thing we require them to do in this bill is put a code of ethics on themselves. that would include enforcement capability, a process. again, you cant have justice without process. there has to be a process, we will evaluate what they propose. and if it is not good enough, we will have, you know, time to give up and do our own for them. but the two areas, other than having rules themselves, will be focused a lot on the first is recusals, making...

>> theyre going to ask him. and then where are we? >> then i think its a duty of any senator, republican or democrat, if they cant answer the ethics question, which you pointed out earlier or matts question, they cant vote to confirm him. >> the ethics questions i think is so important. because i agree, hes hit a lot of the right notes. you expect every nominee to come before this committee and hit those notes. in an important way he has broken with the long-term precedent when it comes to the r...

The justice department as the head of the office of legal counsel, as the attorney general previously. that strikes me as wrong. what hes doing is writing a memo about his use of the law that at least one prominent professor jack olsen says are pretty standard. i think graham will say look, this is a man with a lot of experience. by all accounts, democrats and republicans alike admit hes a serious person with a lot of stand up to donald trump. the question is what happened to the recusal questio...

Recuse himself from overseeing it. >> the fact that he assured lindsey graham helps but it doesnt answer the questions. there is plenty of damage that can be done. look at the mueller report after the investigation. the recusal question. matthew whittaker was told by ethics officials you ought to recuse and he ignored that. i think that is one of the questions that senators need to ask william barr, if you are advised that you have a potential conflict, will you follow that advice?

The recusal question, which is another thing that will have to be decided by the doj and ultimately decided by the acting attorney general shows the checks and balances. the president is constrained by constitution and law but also constrained by political pressure. and its fairly clear what the presidents motive was here. jeff sessions is the sixth cabinet official to leave in this administration. if the other five cases, the deputy stepped up into the job, as is the normal practice. its clear ...

The way in which, or the recusal thing works at the doj, theres no law or even regulation that compels you to go to the ethics folks at justice and say what should i do here? but both legal ethics and political probity normally means if you think you have a conflict you go and say -- ask for recommendation. it appears whitaker is not going to do that. in fact, as joyce just said, the reason he was chosen is precisely because he has these conflicts. how does that recusal question play out as a ma...

But its clear hes going to. in fact, its increasingly clear thats why he was brought on board. >> so jeremy, i want to ask you. the way in which, or the recusal thing works at the doj, theres no law or even regulation that compels you to go to the ethics folks at justice and say what should i do here? but both legal ethics and political probity normally means if you think you have a conflict you go and say -- ask for recommendation. it appears whitaker is not going to do that. in fact, as joyce ...

Changes on the way. no one is surprised that sessions is one of the first. what theyre surprised at, that the acting attorney general is mat whitaker and that if true, hes overseeing the mueller probe. i dont know that we have that definiti definitively. i know its out there in different forms. that is the significant moment. you have jerry nadler that will take a chairmanship saying they need answers right now as to the choice of matt whitaker. what is happening with deputy attorney general ros...

Pretext for raising the recusal question. recusal of rod rosenstein is something thats come up before. it stems from the fact he wrote that memo about james comeys firing in advance, and hes basically whats known as a fact within in this case. i think theyll see them use this incident to press the case that rod rosenstein, maybe should recuse himself from this case, in which case this would drop to the next person in line, not necessarily somebody they would hand-pick. >> who would that person b...