Thats different than his, perhaps, more gran yu thats different than his, perhaps, more gran ylar daily gripes on twitter where hes talking about former fbi employees, lisa page and peter strzok or bruce ohr, someone whos currently at the Justice Department who hes threatened w withdraw his security clearance. Those are individual cases. The Justice Department doesnt comment on those. Today it was digit becaufferent it was about the Attorney Generals control over the Justice Department and felt like it was time to push back and this, oching of courf course, i. He rarely does this. He always, as every single event, sessions goes out of his way to praise the president. To talk about furtherering his agenda. But the one time that he did push back was back in february where, again, the president questioned his integrity. He said what the Attorney General had been doing at the Justice Department surrounding carter page, and surveillance and fisa, those issues that have become also familiar to us now, when the president attacked him calling him a disgrace, its,
again, the time when Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions hit back and so i think thats what were seeing. Hes not going to react every single day to every single tweet. But when his integrity is questioned, he will have something to say, ana. Laura jarrett, we know youre continuing to dig into this. Thank you. Joining us now to talk more about it all, kaitlyn huey burns, National Political reporter for real clear politics. Cnn legal analyst and former prosecutor paul callan. And robert bianci, former prosecutor in morris county, new jersey. First reaction from everyone, paul. This is cowardly back stabbing by the president of the United States against an Attorney General who has shown enormous integrity and backbone in standing up to mr. Trump. The president s been trying to force a resignation of Jeff Sessions when he, the president , has the right to fire him if he wishes to do so. But the president is too fearful of doing that because it may subject him to Obstruction Of Justice charges. So instead, hes trying to use
this backdoor effort of constant berating and attacks on the Attorney General, so the Attorney General will resign. And i think sessions deserves enormous credit for standing up to the president , showing backbone, and integrity by remaining in office. Your reaction, robert . I agree with my colleague here. And im surprised that i am. Not that i agree with you. But he is doing what hes supposed to be doing and not letting politics influence what the Justice Department is supposed to be doing. Now its interesting to me, when i was appointed to head prosecutor, and you know this, by the governor, i can only be removed for cause. I cant be browbeat out of that office. I think they need to do something so this cant happen again. Nevertheless, ill say one last point, its interesting to me that the president is so upset about what hes doing with the Justice Department, because i handled criminal defense cases and when they pass policies that that you have to tappeal to a defense, and the draconian plead
guidelines, i wish the president would be concerned about the little guy whos going to jail for a lot less of the policies of this administration. Notable to me that the president used the word, loyalty, when he was talking about why hes so upset with Jeff Sessions and his response, clearly, says, i am not loyal to you. Right. And absolutely interesting about this, too, is the way in which the president is continuing to use justice, in quotation marks. I think what youre seeing kind of across agencies, quite frankly, when you were talking about agency heads coming out in public and defending their own agencies, i think its really striking, considering that they have to stick up for the work of everybody in these agencies. Remember, just after the helsinki conference, we saw the heads of the National Security and intelligence communities come out and try to stake their own ground on here. Here we see Jeff Sessions doing exactly that as well and the president has berated Jeff Sessions for months and months without taking that step of actually firing him. I think its also notable that
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of a witness, of course, is Michael Cohen . Right . Weve seen the president try to downplay his role in his own life, and, you know, think there is a question about his credibility. If you do have these other people corroborating what he is saying, i think that could speak to that. Thats beyond my legal purview, but of course. As far as paul, do you think that were going to now see more potential investigations here in new york given that this is where all of its happening, but this is a federal case that was open against cohen. Could there be a State Prosecution or investigation at the very least moving forward . Well, thats an interesting question because state Attorney Generals have been making noises about going after trump on charges all across the country, and, obviouf course, new york h been particularly hostile to him. So much of the media is in new york. Now this david pecker thing is very, very interesting because pecker, of course, was the deal that he used to do with trump was he would have these catch and kill arrangements. Where if somebody like one of the Playboy Playmates had a bad story about trump, that trump wanted to kill, the National Enquirer would go to the person and say were going to put you on as a columnist for x amount of money but were going to buy your story. So that they could never tell the tale of a relationship with trump. Its called a catch and kill arrangement. But federal prosecutors have now come up with a theory that this really is kind of a campaign contribution. Its Aiding And Abetting a gift in kind to prevent embarrassing information from being disclosed. The same theory that theyre using against cohen. So theyre being theyre being very thorough in this investigation. And now its really gone to another level when theyre starting to look it begs the question, too, as we learn more and more, im recalling there were more than a dozen women who came out and had allegations against thencandidate trump, kara. Could there be more hush payment we dont even know about . I think to pauls point, exactly, the enquirer is in The Business Of Catch and kill and the relationship david pecker has with trump goes back decades. I was doing some research and david pecker, you know, attended trumps wedding, they have this long, rich relationship. And, you know, so if everything stands to reason the way that its been, i think it makes sense that there possibly could be more payments. I mean, even after the story of Stormy Daniels and Karen Mcdougal broke, we had, you know and after the raid of Michael Cohen, the enquirer ran a story about Michael Cohen, trumps fixers, secrets and lies. At the time, everyone was saying that david pecker would never have allowed that cover story to run, which is favorable to trump. You know, that would not have happened without david peckers signoff. That was at least as recently as may where we saw the National Enquirer writing a story about Michael Cohen here, a negative
story, so it certainly i think their loyalty extended up until this point, American Media and david pecker might have been put in a situation where they were going to be forced to testify before a grand jury and forced into this up munity deimmunity. It would stand to reason to your question that there could well be other women out there because of the allegations you referred to and the catch and kill history of American Media. Guy, got to leave it there. Thank you so much. Back to our Breaking News. Attorney general Jeff Sessions sending a stinging response to fresh attacks on his department of justice from the president. What cnn just learned about why hes hitting back. And smack in the middle of a wild interview, President Trump offers a frightening warning on why he shouldnt be impeached. Saying the markets would crash. Youll hear it, next. So you have, your headphones, chair, new laptop, 24 7 tech support. Yep, thanks guys. I think he might need some support. Yes. Start them off right, with the School Supplies they need at low prices all summer long. Like these for only 2 or less at office depot officemax. Bundle and save big, but now its time to find my dream abode. Right away, i could tell his priorities were a little unorthodox. Keep going. Stop. A little bit down. Stop. Back up again. Is this adequate sunlight for a Komodo Dragon . Yeah. Sure, i want that discount on Car Insurance just for owning a home, but im not compromising. Youre taking a shower . Water pressures crucial, scott its like they say location, location, koi pond. They dont say that. On the new sleep number 360 smart bed. It senses your movement and automatically adjusts to keep you both comfortable. And now, all beds are on sale. Save 50 on the new sleep number 360 limited Edition Smart bed. Plus, free home delivery. Ends saturday. And works twice as hard when you take it again the next day. Stick with zyrtec® and muddle no more®. These are the specialists were proud to call our own. Experts from all over the world, working closely together to deliver truly personalized cancer care. Expert medicine works here. Learn more at cancercenter. Com
comcast, building americas largest gigspeed network. Back to our breaking story this hour. The president has been berating Attorney GeneralJeff Sessions for months about his decision to recuse himself from the special counsel Robert Muellers rush is a investigation. Today, sessions hit back issuing a statement that reads in part, while i am Attorney General, the actions of the department of justice will not be improperly influenced by political considerations. With us now, cnn political director david chalian, and david, a lot of people have said this is a long time coming. We know the president doesnt take criticism well. How is this going over with trump, do you think . I would imagine not too well. Although, the president , as you know, believes very much in the
philosophy that when youre punched, you punch back. So he may have some respect here that Attorney General sessions is actually standing up for himself and pushing back a bit. Where can the president go on this . Right . Either hes going to fire Jeff Sessions or not. John cornyn, the number two republican senator, said do not do now, we couldnt get a replacement confirmed. Lindsey graham says not until after the election, if you do it before, its a bad idea. Well see if that has sway, what the president s thinking on this. Its amazing to watch him trapped in by himself on this because he, of course, has the full right to fire sessions at any time that he wants. The president s comments about sessions leading to the response from sessions is just one of many comments that have caught attention from that Interview Trump gave to fox news. We know republicans are grappling with how to handle the fallout of Michael Cohens guilty plea. The president has a warning for lawmakers. Listen. You know, i guess its
something like high crimes and all, i dont know how you can impeach somebody whos done a great job. I tell you what, if i ever got impeached, i think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see you would see numbers that you wouldnt believe. In reverse. This is where we are right now. The president of the United States arguing against his own impeachment, david. Yeah. Ive heard lots of arguments against impeachment, actually, on both sides of the aisle. I never heard one that said the president , any president , shouldnt be impeached because the country, everybody, will be poor. That seems to be a bit grasping at straws there, to me, but what i do think you hear the President Formulating there is a political argument against impeachment. His former chief strategist, steve bannon, is out there urging every republican to run on this issue, on the threat of impeachment and its actually
also why, ana, you see some democrats concerned about bringing up impeachment on the Campaign Trail as an issue and a message because it could backfire on them. It really could rally the Republican Base to come alive in an election season where theyve been a little apathetic than weve seen in the primary season in terms of turnout. If the idea that the entire Trump Presidency is on the line, that could awaken some republicans which democrats fear. Trump also said flipping should be outlawed. Listen. He made a great deal because he was in another business totally unrelated to me where i guess there was fraud involved and loans and taxicabs and all sorts of things. Nothing to do with me. He makes a better deal when he uses me. I know all about flipping. For 30, 40 years, ive been watching flippers. Everythings wonderful then they get ten years in jail and flip on whoever the next highest one is or as high as you can go. It almost ought to be outlawed. David, what does this tell you about how the president s Mind Works And H his view on the rule of law . Yeah, well first of all, i dont know what almost ought to be outlawed is, either its outlawed or not. Im not quite sure about his words choice there, but, yeah, it makes your ears perk up. The chief Law Enforcement officer of the land, the executive who oversees the execution of the laws of the land, is now saying theres this tool that Law Enforcement uses to get criminals behind bars that take lowerlevel people, get them to flip and share information, that hes saying almost should be outlawed. It just is mindboggling and all you have to do is look at his attorney, Rudy Giulianis record as a prosecutor, about the people hes flipped. The president , himself, indicates hes seen this a lot and is a