Coming weeks about his decisions to oust National Security adviser Michael Flynn and fbi director james comey. This, as cnn confirms that muellers team interviewed comey as well as the attorney general, Jeff Sessions. Theres a lot to cover this hour. Ill talk with former u. S. Attorney who was fired by mr. Trump. And our correspondents and analysts are standing by. First, lets go to cnns chief National Security correspondent jim sciutto. Muellers next big interview could be with the president. Reporter thats right. If you look at the people who have been interviewed now or who will soon be interviewed, these names, sessions, comey, the president , if he agrees, it makes it very clear that the focus, a focus of the special counsels investigation very much on obstruction of justice. The president is on special counsel Robert Muellers list for questioning. With mueller planning to interview President Trump in the coming weeks about his decision to fire National Security adviser Michael Flynn and fbi director james comey. According to the Washington Post. Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth reporter cnn learned that comey was interviewed and asked about memos he wrote on his interactions with the president before being fired, this according to the new york times, which first reported on the interview. Cnn has also learned that attorney general Jeff Sessions was questioned for several hours last wednesday. The first trump cabinet secretary to be interviewed in the mueller probe. And the 15th current or former Trump Administration official. Today, the president said hes not worried about sessions meeting with muellers team. Im not at all concerned. Reporter topics likely included russia meddling in the election and what sessions knows about the president s decision to fire comey, a matter that mueller is investigating for on have you been sh for obstruction of justice. If i were mueller, i would want to speak to sessions about an obstruction, and perhaps foremost among them, how did it come to pass that comey was asked for loyalty . How did it come to pass that comey was fired . Reporter new questions are also being raised about the Trump Administrations interference with Law Enforcement. Fbi director Christopher Wray was pressured by the attorney general to make staff changes at the fbi senior level according to a source familiar with the conversation. Its one more example of this administration, the president and through his agent, the attorney general, trying to interfere in the fbis ability to follow the law and help with the investigation into the russia interference with our election and possible trump collusion. Reporter sessions mentioned that Andrew Mccabe and the lawyer james baker, though its not clear whether he told wray to fire or reassign them. Baker was reassigned last year. Wray threatened to quit with mccabe was fired or reassigned. If the president asks you to do something unlawful or unethical, what do you say . First, i would try to talk him out of it. If that failed, i would resign. Reporter still, President Trump told reporters in the oval office today that wray did not threaten to resign. He didnt at all. He did not even a little bit, nope. Reporter the president has repeatedly blasted the fbi, tweeting in december, after years of comey, with the phony and dishonest clinton investigation, and more running the fbi, its reputation is in tatters, worst in history. Fear not, we will bring it back to greatness. Some republican lawmakers are focusing new criticism on the fbi for apparently losing a series of Text Messages between top fbi officials who have come under fire for criticizing then candidate donald trump. However, the republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee dismissed the criticism. It may be a Technical Glitch at the bureau. The fact that they have provided, um, the rest of them, certainly doesnt show an attempt to try to withhold anything. Reporter news that the special counsel wants to ask the president not just about the firing of james comey but the firing of Michael Flynn, thats important for a couple of reasons. One, flynn was fired for lying about his contacts with russians. That brings the investigation back to the question of russia, not just things that happened after russias meddling in the election. Another key point as well, flynn pled guilty to a federal crime. Hes cooperating with the special counsel. What did flynn tell the special counsel about his own dismissal, what the president said to him and will the president s testimony match one that . And theyre looking closely with how he cooperates, what kind of information he has. He hasnt been sentenced and all of that is relevant. Thank you very much. Jim sciutto reporting for us. Now over to the white house. White house attempting to down play and dismiss some of the Fast Breaking new developments in the russia probe. Lets go to pamela brown. What are you hearing from the Trump Administration tonight . Reporter the press secretary repeatedly said there was no collusion, that the president didnt engage in collusion with the russians. But it appears here that Robert Mueller and the special counsel is zeroing in on obstruction of justice as it pertains to the president , not necessarily collusion. According to the Washington Post, mueller has reached out to trumps lawyers, asking to question him on two specific topics, as jim reported on, the firing of james comey and former National Security adviser Michael Flynn. Investigators want to know his state of mind, his intent, why did he fire them . Was it to obstruct the russia probe, as youll recall . James comey wrote in his memos that the president asked him to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn. So muellers team will presumably want to find out why that is. But, again, sarah sanders, the press secretary, is down playing all this, saying the white house is fully cooperative, that this should wrap up soon. Heres what she said today during the press briefing. As we said probably just about every day this year since weve been here, that were going to be fully cooperative with the special counsel, and were going to continue to do that throughout the process. But were also not going to comment on who may or may not or could be interviewed at any point, but were going to continue to be fully cooperative with the process. Reporter while the white house wants the probe to wrap up soon, its far from clear that that will happen. We learned that Jeff Sessions was interviewed by special counsel muellers team. So clearly these interviews are ongoing. What form the interview will take with the president and muellers team is unclear. Sources say there could be a hybrid situation where hes interviewed in person, as well as in written questioning. Certainly, if and when this happens, wolf, it will be a significant development. Certainly will be. Pamela brown, thank you. Joining us now, senator sheldon whitehouse, a member of the judiciary. Thank you for joining us. Happy to. The Washington Post reporting that Robert Mueller plans to interview President Trump in the coming weeks, particularly about his firings of his National Security adviser michael flip and the fbi director james comey. Is he building a case potentially for obstruction of justice . Yeah, and probably has been for a long time now. You speak as a former attorney general of rhode island. Tell us why you believe that. Well, because there has just been such an abundance of evidence pointing towards that, whether its the firing of comey, the statements that were made beforehand seeking loyalty. The statements that were made afterwards to the russians, saying that he got rid of comey for the investigation. And then this big cloud of twitter and media on various potential witnesses in the grand jury like jim comey, and on the credibility of the fbi. If all of that is viewed as being intended to influence the grand jury, then thats a form of obstruction of justice. So it would be appalling if the mueller team were not looking at all that evidence and trying to get to the bottom of how and whether obstruction of justice occurred. Senator, do you believe the president will cooperate . How much can his legal team, for example, influence the nature of this interview with mueller and his team and the format . I dont think bob mueller and his team are going to be easy to intimidate. I think theyre going to get what they want. Obviously, hes the president of the United States and certain courtesies as to where you take the interview, and as to what questions can be answered in writing opposed to the ones the prosecutors really want to see live is within bobs discretion, to let him have that flexibility. Im sure hell be courteous in that respect. But none of that is going to inhibit bob muellers ability to get the information that he needs. Last wednesday by the way, when hes doing this, when hes doing this, now his witnesses, whether its sessions or trump himself, are under pains and penalties of perjury. Theyre within the ambit of the false statements law. And there is no executive privilege. So even the phony nonassertion assertions of executive privilege have to be swept aside. If youre deliberately not remembering stuff, that also can create legal peril. So its going to be harder for sessions or for trump to have fits of amnesia. Weve now learned that last wednesday, the special counsel Robert Mueller and his investigator spent hours interviewing the attorney general of the United States, Jeff Sessions. How significant is that . Very significant. Again, it puts sessions both the equivalent of under oath. It strips him of executive privilege and requires him to answer questions fully and truthfully. Second, theres just so much to go into about the obstruction of justice, about the firing of comey, about what was going on with the meetings with the russians back at the convention, which may well be related to the trump efforts to strip on behalf of russia the stuff ukraine provisions out of the republican matt form. Sessions was around long enough to know about that stuff, if there was anything going on there. So theres a broad, broad, broad array of things that the attorney general could have been talking about, and it could be that theyll get a second bite at him, too. Nothing says these officials only get to be interviewed once. As you know, Robert Mueller is also investigating possible collusion. Could the attorney general Jeff Sessions possibly answer whether others in the Trump Campaign, and he was in the Trump Campaign, sessions, knew about this russian offer of dirt, for example, on Hillary Clinton, an offer that was made to George Papadopoulos, who has already pled guilty, a former Trump Campaign staffer. Yeah, absolutely. That and other things, as well. Given all the meetings that sessions had with russians, and given his ability, just from an investigative point of view, to point them in new directions and figure out who else they need to interview based on conversations or information that sessions can report to them. So theres a good chance that this initial interview with sessions was related just to obstruction of justice and collusion may be a later interview, we just dont know what the topic was. But nothing says that everything had to be discussed in just one interview. The attorney general is also drawing scrutiny right now for reportedly pressuring the fbi director Christopher Wray to clean house over at the fbi. What was the motivation behind that . Well, its hard to tell. But whats really bad about this is that it aligns very closely with a lot of republican talking points in the attack on the fbi that is being maintained, many of us believe falsely, as they scream to try to either deflect public attention from the russia investigation or taint the reputation of the fbi in the russia investigation with the public, or even to taint the image of the fbi with the grand jurors, to seek to influence the grand jury that way. Again, way out of bounds to seek to influence grand juror in the performance of their duties. Devin nunez accused the fbi of abusing domestic surveillance tools, International Surveillance tools. What would be the impact of that four page memos release . Well, i suspect this is a bit of an amped up version of the document that republican senators released, asking for a criminal investigation into christopher steele, the researcher who put together the famous steele dossier. Its a chance for political folks to take an issue that is buried and classified or investigative material and very selectively get portions of it out into the Public Domain without the public having a chance to understand the whole story. On the senate side, we solved that when chairman feinstein put the whole story out, and i think that helped settle that question. Its more complicated, because theres more information behind the devin nunez report. But the house members who have looked at it and have looked at the underlying material say that it simply does not align with the actual classified material that it purports to summarize. Christopher steele, not just a researcher, a former british spy who was highly regarded by the fbi, the u. S. Law enforcement, and u. S. Intelligence community. Relied on frequently by the Law Enforcement community for his expertise, way before the dossier appeared. Thats correct. Senator whitehouse, thanks so much for joining us. Lets bring in secnns seni legal analyst. Thanks for joining us. Good to be here. Lets get to that Washington Post report, the story that the special counsel Robert Mueller plans to interview the president in the coming weeks, and that mueller wants to question the president about the firings of his National Security adviser Michael Flynn and the former fbi director james comey. What does that tell you about the focus of this investigation . It tells you in part that the focus of the investigation is on the president of the United States and the preview in your question, you pointed to the two issues that they want to focus on, if the report is to be believed. It also tells you, its a big deal. Its been reported for a while that ultimately the president was going to that the special counsels office was going to want to talk to the president , and these seem to be more concrete reports thats going to happen. Typically, the timing would indicate that at least with respect to the things theyre concerned about that implicate the president or about which the president may have information implicating others, theyre nearing the end. Nothing about this investigation is typical when you have a special counsel who has been appointed to investigate the activities oh of the president and his closest advisers. Thats not a garden variety case. But from my experience in the u. S. Attorneys office as a u. S. Attorney, when you have an overt investigation and people know whats going on, you save for the end, in the same way that the fbi did with the Hillary Clinton email investigation, you save for the end the top dog in the case. And this would indicate, if its true, and i caution people about necessarily believing the timetable as laid out in that article, because its probably coming from a defense lawyer, people representing donald trump. But if its to be believed that this interview might happen in the next few weeks, i think thats a considerable sign that we may be nearing some important Inflection Point in the investigation and in the case. The Washington Post is also reporting that the president s team wants the testimony to be a sort of hybrid, written statements and inperson interview. How much influence will the president s he will team have in determining the format . Yeah. I dont know what that is, a hybrid. Generally speaking, prosecutors want, if they if theyre demanding it, they want to speak facetoface, sitting in a room across from the person theyre trying to get information from. And the defense lawyers and they associates can submit documents or affidavits, they can do presentations. But i would find it remarkable if it would be acceptable for the president s lawyers to say, with respect to some issues were going to give you a document and testimony in writing of some sort thats not sworn. And in some other cases, with respect to some other questions, well make the president of the United States available for questioning and follow up that back and forth. That doesnt seem to hold a lot of water as far as im concerned. Would it take place, the questioning of the president of the United States, before a federal grand jury or in an office at the white house or an of