report coming tomorrow from the department of justice inspector geral over hillary clinton s e-mails from the washington post today, quote, trump is widely expected to use the inspector general findings to launch fresh political attacks against the law enforcement officials behind robert r s rus probe. for instance, some of mueller s key witnesses in the obstructi of justice case, james comey and andrew mccabe. with us now from the new york times, justice reporter matt apuzzo. matt apuzzo, we ve talked a little already about the strategy of smearing bob mueller and his investigators smearing the trump appointee-led justice department and fbi. but that will not stop or slow down anyone tomorrow if this i.g. report is critical of the last regime. will it? we mean, and it will be critical. 28 be critic it will be critical of the fbi in many of its steps during the investigation of hillary clinton and her use of a private e-mail server.
but when you re getting to the quell of inat the point, that s why you want to hear from the person himself. we do know that the president gave rod rosenstein his draft firing letter of jim comey, and that mccabe actually got a copy of that draft from rosenstein and gave that draft to bob mueller along with copies of his memos. should mention we have a sense of what s in one of these memos. i m told maybe there s a half dozen more. obviously given the investigation and given the firing, you know, andy mccabe isn t on the interview circuit, but would obviously very much love to talk to him about what s in the other memos, right? because we all would. he has a standing invitation. half a dozen memos. let me stay on this with you, frank figliuzzi. one more from matt s great piece. he over sees an investigation to the president who points to mr. rosenstein s own actions as
libby and dinesh d souza. it sent a message to the personal attorney and people ensnard, like national security advisor mike flynn that this president trump is willing to exercise his power of clemency to help out his friends and allies to prevent them from serving jail time or to pardon them after the fact. i talked to some people who are in trump s outer orbit who may become ensnared or are already witnesses in the mueller probe who said that that signal was received loudly and clearly today. but, joyce, does the very act there s been reporting from matt and his colleagues about john dowd, the president s former attorney, dangling pardons in front of mike flynn and other i believe at the time they were witnesses, they were charged and some pleaded guilty. is the very act of dangling pardons, could that be construed as obstruction of justice by bob
bottom of why and that is still a question they are trying to figure out, why did the president actually fire jim comey. and that is at the center, matt apuzzo, of the investigation to whether or not the president obstructed justice. i want to read a couple more pulls from your piece. i d love to read the whole thing but, you know, we ve only got an hour. so, you write don t do it to your readers. subscribe to the times, and everyone should read it themselves. so, mccabe s memo, one of several that he wrote, highlights a conflicting roles that rosenstein plays in the case. he supervises the special counsel investigation and is told colleagues that protecting it is among his highest priorities. many current and former law enforcement officials are suspicious of some of his other actions, including allowing some of mr. trump s congressional allies to view crucial documents from the investigation. i don t think we talk enougher because everything has become so relative about h
the most resistant to it. but in terms of obstruction of justice, i mean, people have seen this play out in the white house, but it also plays out in public view on twitter for all of us to see and so that s very clear. we hear a little bird tells me, phil rucker, you break into something, rash back and share it. matt apuzzo, we re grateful to have you and your writing. as much as he enjoyed his own reality tv show, could the power to pardon and the president willing to use it also be of interest to special counsel robert mueller? also ahead, it is complicated. rosenstein is viewed as mueller s protection. could it cast comey in a brand-new light? and donald trump s war on jeff sessions. the hits keep coming. storms by an insurance company