Transcripts For CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera 20180520

CNNW CNN Newsroom With Ana Cabrera May 20, 2018

Did send one looking for Campaign Advisors it amounts to the fbi spying on his campaign, lets go straight to the white house and correspondent ryan nobles. Ryan, the president s demands, he says he will officially make it tomorrow, what does that mean . The simple answer to that question, we just do not know. We have reached out to white house officials looking for some sort of specificity as to what the president is talking about in relation to the demand and havent heard back, we dont know what hes looking back because theres already an Inspector General investigation in a branch of the department of justice thats looking into whether or not the fbi used surveillance into the Trump Campaign which is what the president was talking about. But what we do know, this is a pattern of frustration by president trump, he ees been ay about the frustration for a year. And he continues to talk about this informant and hes described it as someone trying to infiltrate his campaign. This is someone whos trying to build relationships with members of the trump team in an attempt to glean information, were going to have to wait and see what hes hoping to find out tomorrow. Right now the president s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani really talking about the Robert Mueller led special council investigation, when he says he expects it or at least a major part of it to be wrapped up, we have on the phone or Political Correspondent dana bash, and dana, mueller has given some sort of a timeline as to when this investigation could end . Reporter i spoke with Rudy Giuliani this afternoon and he confirmed what he said, that he had read in the New York Times that Robert Mueller indicated that the investigation could be wrapped up by september 1. However what giuliani also told my was that conversation happened about a month ago and that it was in the context of a negotiation about the president doing an interview. Meaning the conversation was more along the lines of, according to giuliani, more along the lines of mueller saying, you know, we could wrap this up by september 1 if the president talks to us. That was the context of it. And when i say this, again, this is, this president s lawyer speaking, so this is about the president s part in the investigation, theres no indication according to giuliani that mueller meant he could wrap the entire investigation up. I mean just look at the situation with paul manafort, just for an example, thats going to go on theres no question way longer than september. Thats the conversation he said he had. He also told me, giuliani told me that because this was a conversation that happened a month ago that that timeline could have changed so a lot has changed and has been going on for the past month. So this sounds like it wasnt a definitive timeline by any means and according to the New York Times, the timeline was pertaining to the obstruction portion of Robert Muellers probe, is that your understanding as well . Reporter it could be, because its not a secret that the obstruction of justice question has been something that Robert Mueller is looking into, in addition to the underlying reason that the special counsel was appointed in the first place, which is about whether there was any collusion, between russians and anybody in the Trump Campaign orbit. So presumably, it is those two things, at least the president s potential part in questioning the president about those that mueller was suggesting that he could wrap up. Because this is all according to giuliani and remember the key context here is you know, this is how negotiations go and it seems like this was a negotiating tactic a month ago from Robert Mueller as they try to get the president and his attorneys to some sort of interview. Thank you dana bash for your reporting. Lots to discuss with our next guest, democratic congressman de ted lu, he served on the house judiciary committee. Do you believe that Rudy Giuliani actually gave mueller a deadline for wrapping up this investigation . I dont know anna, i know that giuliani makes things up and then has to correct things later. This is a very complicated investigation with lots of own inquiries so i dont think it would wrap up by september, and if you remember the former white house for donald trump also saying oh, this investigation is going to keep ramping up. This could wrap up by this deadline perhaps, if you are willing to have the president come and talk with us . Its possible, but it would also depend on what the president would say, because with every new investigation, it could open up new leads, im a former prosecutor and its nearly impossible to say when an investigation may or may not conclude and youre constantly looking for new evidence and new lines of inquiry. Im clear when dana talked to giuliani, that this again was just pertaining to the obstruction of justice and whether there was any sort of collusion or conspiracy with the Trump Campaign, is that an important dissitingation . The president s comments today could reveal that hes trying to obstruct justice again. If hes trying to say we now need to investigate that investigation. That could be obstruction of justice. He needs to let the investigation against him proceed without any political interference. Also the president saying that hes going to officially make a demand tomorrow for the doj to investigation the doj and whether that person was used for political purposes during the campaign . Does he have the power to demand this type of investigation . He can certainly ask, and i dont have any problem with that inquiry, because its going to show that this fbi started this operation as a Counter Intelligence operation, they were trying to protect the campaign against russia and influenced by foreign power. And it turned out that it mo morphed into a intelligence investigation. Two of them that th so you actually welcome this kind of an investigation, you dont see it as a politically motivated information . I think what the about wants to do is politically motivated, but i think its very easy for the department to just respond back with a letter, yes the fbi did have a surveillance to prevent russian influence into election meddling and i dont think its that big of a deal because its clear what happened here, operation cross fire hurricane, no one disputes that the fbi had legitimate reasons to do that and now we see that some have pled guilty because of the investigation. So you think the doj will respond that way, do you think that thats how they will respond . They could respond quietly by simply writing a letter back to the white house by saying, look, this was a Counter Intelligence type of investigation and we had legitimate reasons for doing this and oh, by the way, two of your Campaign Officials have pled guilty because of what they did. I have learned not to predict the president of the United States. I do know what what he has done this morning with his six or seven tweets with the special counsel investigation when theyre scared, they put Law Enforcement on trial, thats what hes trying to do in his smearing of fbi and the investigation has just got to stop. Are you confident the Obama Administration did not order the fbi or department of justice to infiltrate or surveil the Trump Campaign in 2016 . This happened in 2016, so this would have been obama officials and the fbi under the Obama Administration, so, yes, it happened during the Obama Administration, but this was a Counter Intelligence operation to dry to prevent operations in a former tower. You had salliaty yates coming t the white house to protect michael dplin. So the department of justice started out to protect the legitimacy of the administration. They only morphed into a criminal investigation because of the actions of those during the campaign. What do you think set the president off today . There was a second meeting at trump tower between donald trump jr. And some emissaries from some foreign powers suggesting they wanted to help the Trump Campaign in the 2016 elections, i think thats something that caused them to getman. Congressman, thank you. Lets bring in our panel, for more analysis right now, washington correspondent for new york magazine, cnn legal analyst and former prosecutor who has worked closely with Robert Mueller. And c nrks nrnn analyst. Whats your latest tweet by the president saying that he demands the doj investigate the fbi . He is constitutionally entitled to ask the fbi and the department of justice to inquire of something that he thinks is worthy of inquiry. Its not normally. Normally doj and white house communication rules sort of prohibit this sort of behavior, but its not impermissible constitutionally. I think the thing should be, though, if the fbi and the doj are going to follow his demand and open an investigation that that should be last aspect of it that he has any involvement in. They then have to go about their business uninterfered with or with the appearance of uninterfered with by the white house and let them reach their conclusion. He probably should have gone to the special counsel, or Christopher Wray or Rod Rosenstein in the justice department, and that should been the way, but its his constitutional prerogative as long as he steps back now and doesnt interfere with it on a daytoday basis. What stands out are those names you just listed, they are all republicans, they are the doj, they are the leaders of the fbi that the president is attacking essentially. How do you see the president s attacks today . I think to be i think we cannot ignore whats animating the president at this stage, i guess i would put it that way and was animating his request for this. So we have to take a step back and look at this week in terms of Counter Intelligence and National Security. The president and his proxies essentially were successful in outing a confidential informant who was helping in a criminal investigation, theres been reporting about not just the russia contacts but of course a saudi and uae, and donald trump jr. Appears to be sort of key player in a lot of this. So while the president may have that prerogative, its requires us to think that its benign, requires us to ignore the National Security and Counter Intelligence implications. I will add one thing, i kind of hope they do do it. In one sense, because i think what it will show is the fbi actually had legitimate reasons to have a Counter Intelligence investigation against the very person whos asking them to review this investigation, donald trump. So in some ways, maybe it would be smart for the department of justice to call the plouffe. Bluff. Olivia, the president has tweeted eight times today about the russia investigation or at least this weekend, the fbi and the doj, we just heard from juliette, mentioning some of the reporting that came out this week from the Washington Post and the New York Times, we have also been following the gop leaders, particularly devin nunes, the chairman of the house intelligence committee, who has been sort of agging on this sort of thing all along, who do you think is influencing who here . We know that the president has spent most of this weekend on the phone with giuliani, i think they spoke friday or saturday night and they spoke this morning pretty early and its clear hes been influenced heavily by giuliani who is his friend and hes been influenced by fox news, where hes in feedback mode where hes hearing what he wants to hear. And we just had this conversation about the investigation, all of these revelations this week, with the various investigations, i think hes very frustrated that this is defining his presidency, i mean we are more than a year into this new administration and all that we are talking about is the Mueller Probe and the other investigations related to it and i think its very frustrated for him. And i think that really explains why he just wont let it go. And why Rudy Giuliani, much like ty cobb, other people on the president s legal team are telling him it might be wrapped up by september, its supposed to be wrapped up according to ty cobb in four to six weeks when he said that back in january. So he really wants to look as though he is fighting back and thats what this is about. It does it make sense to you that Robert Mueller would have told giuliani what he says he was told . It doesnt make any sense to me, it doesnt make any sense to me when he said that a sitting president cant be indicted. I think more than likely mueller said we follow d ooj guidelines and they can extrapolate what that means. I dont think that mueller said that the obstruction part of the investigation will be wrapped up by september 1. It may be that he had a conversation two months ago. So im not sure what the timeline is here, but take him at his most recent word to dana. That a month ago, a few days after he was hired, that they had a meeting as he said then with mueller to talk about topics and so maybe this came up in the context of that, but as a definitive statement from mueller that we intent to do this if you do that . I dont credit it. I just dont credit it at all. Could the swetweet that he s out today actually play into the obstruction of justice investigation if the president is saying you need to investigate somebody who was investigating my campaign . I dont think so, i think he is asking the fbi and the department of justice to see whether there was any impropriety in the use of the informant, in the same way that he asked the fbi and the doj to inquire as to whether there was impropriety in the fisa warrant against carter page. Maybe he shouldnt be asking those things and the fbi and the doj should be doing that as their own initiative. But i dont see those as obstructionist acts, i just see those as acts of a president whos frustrated by the continuation of this investigation and hes reaching out in various ways. Juliette, i want to ask you a little bit more about this other story. The president appears to s tre to be referencing today the meeting at trump tower. The paper says mueller is looking into that meeting as well. Do you put this meeting on the same level as the trump tower meeting . It now appears that in two instances the Trump Campaign were open to foreign and domestic access to the we also have to remember that theres a biggest context here which is Foreign Countries appear to have known that the trump that donald trump, his son, and the Trump Campaign were receptive to being bought may be a little bit strong, but to accepting their help in winning. So what does that mean . It means not democratic government, like we saw saudi arabia and russia, that are more corruptive, that dont have to be responsible to democracies were getting into the Trump White House and democratic western democracies that have to be receptive, that tend to be less corrupt like the uk, france and germany are not. It also goes to a key National Security question that youre seeing now being reported on. Why so early in the Trump Campaign were they so willing to throw qatar under the bus in its fights with saudi arabia and the uae. So to me this meeting is essential, because just like the russia meeting it ties directly to foreign policy, National Security and money, because if money was exchanged, like all these other things that were seeing where the trumps seem to be getting richer from foreign governments, this may be another piece of evidence. Thank you all for joining us, elizabeth, michael and juliette, i really appreciate it. Coming up, as victims of a School Shooting is laid to rest today, one mother says her daughter was targeted by the gunman. And we have live pictures from hawaii where new fissures are forming rivers of lava, a live report coming up. Been trying to prepare for this day. And im still not ready. The reason im telling you this is that there will be moments in your life that. Youll never be ready for. Your little girl getting married being one of them. The only eye drop. Approved for the signs. And symptoms of dry eye. Because dry eye can mean. More than. Just dryness. 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