The feds have been investigating russia and the election and Donald Trumps campaign for about a year, i havent heard anything solid. Everyone is running around crazy in washington on cable tonight. Theres a difference between a scandal and the conspiracy. What exactly would it special counsel be investigating in terms of a crime. Heres the problem for the white house tonight, this is now a wide open investigation. The press release from the Justice Department makes it very clear that robert mulder, a highly respected former director of the fbi, wide support in both parties now has a vast power to investigate russian influence in the last president ial election and other matters. What does that mean, also investigate at general mike flynn. If you think back to the clinton days and ken starr, a special counsel, a special prosecutor can start as one thing and become quite another, and to be very, very difficult for a white house. On the other hand, what is good news for this white house tonight is the fact that the president s now perhaps can get back focused on taxes and health care and the other things he was elected to do while a highly regarded special counsel is now focused on the russia matter. To your question into your point, if this president has nothing to worry about, he will now have a highly respected investigator who will look at this and if there is nothing there at the end of it, the American People can have confidence that we can finally move on from this. If if Robert Mueller does find a crime or crimes, thats a whole other matter and its going to get very difficult for this president because of the fact that hes known as someone with great integrity. Jesse it could give the president some breathing room to enact his agenda in the next couple years. Lets take it around the horn, kimberly guilfoyle. Does this come as a surprise commits a direction they were leaving again, they want to have this habit to make sure there was nothing improper, no kinds of impropriety going on here. It did send mike a surprise, the president , the top aides have been resisting calls for a special counsel to be named. The fact of the matter is our own chief White House Correspondent is telling us tonight from a Senior Administration official, when don mcgann got the official call from the Justice Department that this is the way they were going to go with Robert Mueller the special counsel, he went to the president and the oval office and convened a meeting, writes previous, the chief of staff, kelly on conway, steve bannon, all kinds of top aides. What i find interesting in this reporting is that we are hearing that the president seems measured in his response. You know President Trumps critics are waiting for him tonight or tomorrow morning early, get on social media stop ripping into bob mueller or his critics on the hill. Instead were hearing a much different portrait from the president Senior Advisor tonight and that in the oval office, the president told his top aides, this is the hand weve been dealt, lets move forward. To jesses point, this may give on the Positive Side some breathing space to get back to the business of the nation all this uncertainty in washington, now its good to be investigated, lets get back to business. The president realizes theres nothing he can do at this point, a special counsel has vast power, there is no more resisting the call. In some ways, thats good for this white house instead of the drip drip of not just democrats but slowly some republicans on the hill saying we need a special counsel and the white house, thats over now. If there is a special counsel, they have to deal with it. If jesse the president might be breathing a little sigh of relief. I want to be sure i get this straight, the Justice Department made this call and then the white house was told, right . You have the number two official who helped write that memo who helped the president decide hes going to fire at james comey, he has the power to appoint a special counsel because the number one official at the Justice Department the attorney general at the United States, the chief Law Enforcement officer Jeff Sessions has recused himself from all matters related to the russia investigation because he was part of the campaign. The white house had no control over it. Bobl0 its a little unusual that they dont even know this is going on. But i think its good for them. I think jesse made a good point. Up to now, they have so screwed up the communication on this stuff on the drip, drip, drip, they could never get on the same page, this white house. Now everyone could say theyve got a special counsel and were not going to comment on it. If you cant screw that up, maybe they could, but it would be hardpressed to do it. This white house might pull it off. Previous administrations in both parties, whether you had a special counsel, or congressional investigation, its an effective tool to suggest when you are asked, sean spicer, with the latest on the russia investigation . Were going to stay away from that. We have a special counsel, bob mueller is looking at that. The instead of thats drip, drip you mentioned and the pounding that sean spicer and the president himself had been taking, im not saying this is good news, theres a special counsel now investigating this. If and underline the word if a crime or crimes here, bob mueller is respected and as a lawyer, is a former fbi director. If there are crimes here hes likely to find them. Im not spinning this as good news but at the end of the day, you are absolutely right that this is a chance for the white house to insulate themselves and say that is going on over there, were focused on the business of the country. Jesse dana perino. You are in the White House Briefing room, i was the Deputy Press Secretary at the time when the Valerie Plame investigation is going on, there was a special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald who was a u. S. Attorney at the time. What is the difference of bob mueller taking over here . This is not just an investigation into possible collusion in between the Trump Campaign and russia. Its much bigger than that. I see this as a Rob Silverman report on wmd. If its about the overall rush in an attempt to influence, it may be had nothing to do with the Trump Campaign. When you look at some of the things russia was doing to hack into twitter and a social media and create fake news stories i actually think this could be very, very useful overall for not just america but for the civilized world to push back against russia in some sort of Robert Silverman type report that would be accepted in their conclusion. I think as you lay that out without a special counsel, President Trump could be dealing with this not for weeks or months, but maybe years. You could get a fast investigation to look at everything, john mccain last night as a senior republican said this is becoming Something Like watergate, drip, drip. The American People are not going to have r investigation if its done by people who are seen as close to the president , it must be some sort of independent probe appeared to your point, this could be important for this white house to have some sort of Good Housekeeping seal of approval that this is not a crony of President Trump who was looking at this. Your question about a special prosecutor, the law has changed. Remember the special prosecutor laws expired. The Justice Department has the ability to call a special counsel, what will that mean for bob mueller . He now has to hire lawyers, he has to have investigators were told hes going to build on the current investigation with fbi agents but hes going to have to get office space in washington, this could be a sprawling investigation. Does he look at it as a special counsel that investigates and recommends to the Justice Department whether or not theres a prosecution if there are crimes . Final point, you are right. There is an important point everyone has to remember, this is not just about russia influencing the election. When the Justice Department says theyll be investigating, that could mean the president s dinner with james comey, the meeting in the oval office with james comey, general flynn and the money he accepted, there are all kinds of things this could open the door to that could be very painful for this white house. If jesse great got filled filled, youre next. Theres so many lanes, theres more lengths of this, there might be nothing there. When you cant focus and instead it youre saying it could be this, it did this, it could be this, its because there is no this. Youre desperately trying to find all these little things, thats not what i want to talk about. I swear i can hear Hillary Clinton cackling in her makeshift shed out in the woods. I think this is for her a minor victory, a participation trophy after being slaughtered by trump in the election. If you remember in the book shattered right after she lost, the narrative that she wanted out, she lost because of russia. Ever since then it has been about russia, russia, russia, now, thats what she got. The media is on board, everyone is doing her bidding, its like she never went away. It was even more recent than the book shattered and more recent than election night. Think about when she did that q a, and flat out said i was winning. If the election was held on october 27th, id be your president s bridge which is a remarkable thing to say because the election was not health plan. As a sean spicer from the podium the day after, he said if they had finished the super bowl at halftime, the Atlanta Falcons would have one. October 27th was ridiculous, it was not election day. I think it directly to your question, the fact of the matter is Hillary Clinton has not gotten over the result, maybe she gets some measure of justice tonight that this is all going to be looked at, but i think its very interesting that remember donald trump and his advisors in the campaign encouraged this whole lock her up refrain and now you have a very in serious investigator Robert Moeller looking on whether or not there are crimes on the trump side. We dont have any evidence that there was or is but now they are it and they are looking at it very closely. Jesse more to come ton became americas sweetheart when she starred on full house. 30 years later, People Magazine says, lori looks as ageless as ever. Lori loughlin i am feeling really good about my skin right now. And thats because of meaningful beauty. Announcer meaningful beauty is a powerful antiaging system that visibly reduces wrinkles, diminishes expression lines and gives you healthier, younger looking skin. 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Robert moeller has accepted, heres jason chaffetz. May be there watching a little too Much Television and reading too many newspapers and whatnot. I have not seen any evidence of actual collusion where is the actual crime that they think they need a special prosecutor to prosecute, i havent seen that. Theres been a lot of flailing but that started before january 20th. Dana heres a benefit, we talked about the white house is liberating to take this opportunity to not comment, health care, jobs, relentless focus, have a good foreign trip come back, let the chips fall where they may in terms of prosecutor. Congressman jay fitz is actually retiring and then muddying the waters with more politics. Jesse if i was about to retire, i would start working on my tan i would Start Playing tennis, i dont know that he wants to get embroiled in this in this fiasco four. I do agree with you and some of what ed said, there are benefits to this special counsel. I admit i flipflopped on this thing. Theres already multiple investigations. I can say that i flipflopped and thats on tape. Now i believe because the heat has gone up so much, it lowers the temperature on other levels. It takes the hole trump fired comey and obstructs justice, it gives spicer a big sigh of relief and guys notice you need to help out there. And it takes the democratic messaging away that trump is above the law hes a king that 80s stopping stopping everything from going on, it says something very interesting. It could go into the flynn thin thing, the unmask yours. Go to the leakers. Who knows where things end up. If this might end up blowing back on the democrats. Dana i want to ask you this, the democrats had supported bob mueller during the obama administration, Public Service is in his dna, hes been in washington for a long time, join to seven days before 9 11. Served in obamas and administration, they asked him to serve an additional two years, will the democrats accept his conclusion . Expatriate you cant not, the guy has an enormous amount of among democrats. The good news is whatever he says is done, thats going to be at. I think its going to be accepted or not accepted, but how do you not accept somebody like this . Heres the other thing, it opens up a whole avenue for more leak leaks. The amount of leaking that comes out of this place, all this information in the fbi. If you got a new fbi director coming in, probably working with existing agents, i think youll be it tension between him and the new director. Dana mueller is not a showboat in any way, he is not a u. S. Attorney who has a future in mind like Patrick Fitzgerald did in the Bush Administration he already has his name and his Public Service. Hes not controversial, what are their future ambitions . This is someone of integrity, high intelligence terms of the quality of it, the expense of it, you dont want it to be a deterrent to the president s agenda, the proposals and what he wants to put forward and have those be counted. But i do echo bobs sentiment that theres a real problem here in terms of opportunity for leaks the president has to make sure he has a touch team around him, hes focusing on his agenda and they really try and control leaks and people that might be trying to do him harm appeared the mic. Dana i had a good point for greg. Just comment on anything. Greg you know when you go to to complain about a billing problem at a company and they go we were addressing at, whered you go after that . Its a problem, yes, were addressing that. He is the supervisor, hes addressing that. Now its like you are passed off about russia, you go yeah, were addressing that. If dana i remember my question. To kimberlys point, the worst thing would be leaks. The problem is the purpose the person whos perpetuating the story is the president himself. Will he not be able to comment . Greg i think this is a posturing pacifier, the dems can suck on this, with the exception of ken starr, i cant remember any of these probes amounted to anything memorable. Its background noise for years its a really boring version of law order, it goes on and on and on, it may outlast us. Dana wear and tear on the staff, it there are consequences. Bob does a special counsel go to the Justice Department and if they decide that they want to prosecute, he still has to do with the fbi director would do, right . Kimberly thats a good question, he would be doing the same thing that comey was doing, putting together an investigation, because comey wasnt doing the investigation himself, overseeing it, collects the evidence and put everything together and put together his report based on the findings. What hes not going to do is then step in and to say theyre making the decision. Dana as you heard ed henry said the law changed four years ago, i dont think its exactly clear it will find out my the morning. It jesse can i get a little more c