Honored that recusal with regard to matters pending the Department Of Justice, but i just want to comment on what may have been on anybody elses mind or offer any opinion about that because its not for me to make those decisions. Well, it is exactly, i think, why Senator Schatz asked a whole series of questions about the scope of recusal, because i am a lawyer. Senator schatz may not be. He asked better questions than i did, but i also am having real difficulty understanding the scope of the recusal, its contours in definition, and i have an unresolved question about whether or not thats why the Attorney General failed to appear before us today, is to avoid having to answer direct questions about the scope of his recusal. I do appreciate and respect your appointment of a highly talented Special Counsel, and there have been questions from both sides that imply strong support for his independence and his conduct, and i appreciate the care with which you are answering my questions, but im simply going to conclude by
counsels office . No, senator, it is not a disqualification. It is not. As a matter of fact, many states, the judges and prosecutors are actually elected. Donations are a part of that system, is that correct . Yes, thats true. Would it be a disqualification for somebody in the Special Counsels office who had represented ms. Clinton in the past to serve . You know, senator, it would depend on the facts and circumstances. As a general matter, i think the answers no. Isnt that much closer to a Conflict Of Interest . I dont want to answer a hypothetical, senator. Everybody needs to make a determination based on the facts and circumstances of the individual case. How would you get it before the Special Counsel . What process could a member of the senate use to inform the Special Counsel that youd have a concern about hiring somebody that represented clinton . We have a process within the Department Of Justice, senator, so i would encourage you if you have those concerns to raise them with Director Mueller or to raise them with me, and ill
for the Department Of Justice . I appreciate that question, senator. The budget actually is a product primarily of Career Professionals in the department. All right. Hello, everyone. I am kate bolduan. You have been listening fog some fascinating testimony from Deputy Attorney general Rod Rosenstein testifying before a senate committee, a job until a couple of days ago he didnt actually know he was going to have. That was supposed to be Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions there. Rod rosenstein, though, left sitting in and facing difficult questions. Hes also saying very clearly that rosenstein says he sees no good reason to fire the Special Counsel in the Russia Investigation, robert mueller, a move that the president is said to be considering at this moment. All of this a prelude, if you can believe it, to the Second Blockbuster Hearing before the Senate Intelligence committee that is in less than a week. That is coming in just a few hours from now. That is when rosensteins boss, Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions, he will be facing what is sure to be a grilling about the Russia Investigation and his role in the firing of fbi
and appropriate orders. So, is this case closed, story over on this . Well, it is as far as mr. Rosensteins concerned, but its certainly if the president were determined to fire mueller, he would find, presumably, someone to do it. So, youd have Something Like the saturday night massacre, where he would be directing Rosenstein To Fire mr. Mueller, and if Rod Rosenstein refused, he would have to fire Rod Rosenstein, and then he would have to find his successor, someone in the Department Of Justice whos been confirmed, and ask him or direct him or her to do it. So, it would be a blood bath. I mean, and if it went down the route a la watergate and how that played out, diane, what would the fallout be . What would happen to the investigation . Well, if we look at history,
open that no one knows exactly where the president s thinking may be. How did we get here . Ha thats a really good question, kate, because i think your first point is the first thing anyone should ever say when it relates to will donald trump do something or not do something, which is no one knows what donald trump is thinking. Sometimes not even donald trump in that he can say one thing on a tuesday and say the opposite thing on a wednesday and see no real issue there. We got here because we live now in extremely hyperpartisan times. Donald trump did not create those times. He has made them worse. And everything is seen through a political lens. So, now we have trump allies. And chris ruddy is one of those folks, but i wouldnt put him in this category. Id put Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker in this category. We have trump allies and trump himself running down bob mueller, saying the Special Counsel is a witch hunt. Thats donald trump. Newt gingrich raising questions about the people bob mueller has appointed to help him in the Special Counsel investigation chris, we have one of those sound bites from this morning, just for our viewers. Let me play this for you. This is Newt Gingrich on good morning america, speaking to George Stephanopoulos and his take on what he sees wrong with bob mueller and the people hes surrounding himself with. Listen to this. These are bad people. Bad people . Bad people. I mean, these are guys who are going to be after trump back when ken starr was Special Counsel, he had himself given contributions to republicans, yet you and others supported that effort. Thats right, and i think were in a different world. And he went on from there. We are in a different world and these are different, intense times. Stephanopoulos rightly noting a bit of the hypocrisy Newt Gingrich was present but what is gingrich getting at . Theyre trying to undermine bob mueller. I dont think that thats necessarily, kate, about Firing Bob Mueller. Okay. Donald trump has done a lot of things i could have never predicted. To me, Firing Bob Mueller is so
obviously political suicide, he wont even donald trump would not take that gamble. But what i do think Newt Gingrich and others are getting at here is an attempt to say, no matter what bob mueller finds out well, i mean, of course he found that out look, he put a couple lawyers who loved Hillary Clinton on his staff. Well, of course, they arrived at x conclusion. I actually think its more about a longterm campaign to undermine the conclusions that muellers Special Counsel investigation finds, assuming those are not terribly favorable for donald trump. Then its about running him out of town, because Newt Gingrich is a smart political strategist. He is not dumb. He did not engineer the takeover of the house in 1994 by being dumb. What he knows is that getting rid of bob mueller today wreaks, as you other guests have said, wreaks of watergate i mean, you dont even have to stretch to make that comparison. But a longerterm effort to raise questions about whatever mueller finds out has a potentially a much stronger
likelihood of succeeding strategically speaking. Right, but what if bob mueller clears him in the end . Then weve called it all into question, but anyway. Theyll take that risk, i think. I guess so. Peter, you worked for special prosecutor patrick fitzgerald. Youve been in the middle of a storm Something Like this before. What is the impact, not with this kind of talk, though what is the impact of this kind of talk coming from allies of the president . Rod rosenstein being asked, you know, he just hired bob mueller, now hes being asked if hes about to Fire Bob Mueller before a senate committee. Whats the impact of that on Special Counsel and everyone working with him . Well, first let me say, i didnt work under these circumstances, because the Bush White House had a handsoff approach to patrick fitzgerald. They were extremely respectful of the process, and they pledged cooperation with the investigation and they followed through with that pledge. So, you know, we didnt have to deal with the administration
attacking the process or the prosecution. There were allies of the president who would take shots at a time, but that was, you know, that was nothing that really was a concern to us. As to what muellers team is doing, i think they got their heads down and theyre blocking this out, and they are going to control what they can control. The stuff that they cant control, they cant. So, i dont think theyre losing sleep over the possibility that they could all be fired or the Special Counsel could be disbanded, because its simply out of their control. Theyre going to focus on their mission and do their jobs and block Everything Else out. Wild times we live in at the moment. If you all could stand by, because if you can believe it there is more to discuss about what could be playing out on capitol hill in just a few short hours. Stick with me. Chris, great to see you. Thanks, you guys, so much. More Breaking News. We are just getting word also about this. North korea has released an american student, one of the four americans currently being
detained in the reclusive nation, and it comes on the very day that Dennis Rodman arrives in the country. Are these two things related, or is it a coincidence . Well be right back. La quinta presents how to win at business. Step one point decisively with the arm of your glasses. Abracadabra. The stage is yours. Step two choose la quinta. The only hotel where you can redeem Loyalty Points for a free nightinstantly and win at business. [ Deep Sleep Snoring ] the allnew volkswagen atlas. Seats seven, sleeps six. Lifes as big as you make it. New neutrogena® rapid Wrinkle Repair Wrinkles . Your time is up with the proven power of retinol. Reduces wrinkles in just one week. Neutrogena® with my moderate to severe crohns disease,. I kept looking for ways to manage my symptoms. I thought i was doing okay. Then it hit me. Managing was all i was doing. When i told my doctor,. I learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of moderate to severe crohns disease. Even after trying other medications. In clinical studies,. The majority of people on humira. Saw significant symptom relief. And many achieved remission. Humira can lower your ability. To fight infections, including tuberculosis. Serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers,
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the key ones are, laura . Yeah, absolutely, kate. Another huge day on capitol hill. This time, Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions in the hot seat, and there are five key questions we think hes likely to face. First and foremost, why exactly did the president of the United States fire james comey, and what was sessions role in that firing . You will remember, sessions sent a letter to the president on may 9th, actually recommending comeys firing based on the fact that he had flouted doj protocols. But then the president changed the story of it and said that the Russia Investigation was on his mind. So, senators are going to want to know exactly how does this wear with sessions recusal, since hes not supposed to know anything about the Russia Investigation . The next thing is that comey says that trump left him that Sessions Left trump alone in the room in the oval office, so we have to know, and senators are going to want to know, exactly what was sessions thinking about this . Why did he leave the room when there are strict protocols about what exactly the white house and
doj talk about . Sessions, obviously, said that he told comey there are those lines, but comey says it a little bit differently and says sessions just stared at him blankly. The next thing is, did sessions of offer to resign . Last week, cnn and others reported that the relationship had fractured a bit. But i am told that sessions has no plans to resign. But if he did offer, why . And were told that the president didnt accept it. So, senators are going to certainly want to probe him on that and get to the bottom of it. The next is, what exactly is dojs position on the support for Special Counsel bob mueller . The trump confidante, chris ruddy, is now saying that the president of the United States is considering terminating mueller, but the Deputy Attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, is up on the hill right now saying that there are regulations in place, and that Decision Isnt Up To the president. And last but not least, how many times exactly did sessions meet with the Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak . Cnn has reported that congressional investigators are
examining whether sessions had an additional, private meeting with that Russian Ambassador back on the campaign trail, but the Justice Department says it never happened, period. So, you can be sure senators are going to want to question him hard about that, kate. Absolutely. Laura, thank you. So many questions. Thank you for laying it out for us. Everyone will be watching to see how, and if he does answer those questions. Laura, thank you so much. Peter and diane are back with me. Laura jarrett laid out the main questions here. Diane, let me ask you this. On the question of Executive Privilege and will the president Tell Sessions to invoke Executive Privilege, the white house when asked about this yesterday said it depends on the scope of the question that sessions is asked. What kind of question, with all the list that we now see,