Nbc news reporting attorney general william barr tapped an outside prosecutor to review trump aide Michael Flynns case. Sources are saying the investigation could be aimed at several former officials. Trump has repeatedly criticized publicly and this highly unusual move from barr coming after publicly said convicted trump aide roger stone should have his sentence reduced. Were seeing a pattern from barr that is beginning to emerge. Essentially questioning anyone who tried to investigate trump or his new york allies. Looking at reviewing anything politically sensitive and they started grilling line prosecutors in the washington offices about various cases. And now trumps allies in congress are doing exactly the same thing. Leveraging the powers of government barr tapped john durham. And then senator Lindsey Graham is now demanding doj employees interview with the Senate Judiciary committee about the russia investigation. Today, trump bluntly saying cointerfere in whatever criminal probe he wants and trumps attack on the rule of law, as you can manning, that has been a constant. Everybody sees whats going on in the Justice Department. I always put justice now with quotes. We have the worst laws of any country anywhere in the world. James comey was unfair to this country. What did he was a disgrace. You a these investigators, theyre democrats. You have to get rid of judges. Were bucking a court system that never, ever rules for us. I think it is a kiss grace. And mr. Mueller has a lot of conflicts also. Many have said you should fire him. On the department of justice, i would stay uninvolved. I may get involved at some point if it gets worse. Do we have any insight as to why the attorney general william barr is doing this and doing it now . Well. What we know is the attorney general asked in the Eastern District of missouri to look into the flynn case, specifically at flynns fbi interview at the center of his case. Thats where he pled guilty to lying to investigators in a cooperation deal with robert mueller. He who is since said he wants to with you w draw that plea and he didnt lie during that interview. It comes at a time when he is saying he didnt do this. That there was something untoward that happened with his case at the same time the president is saying that Michael Flynn is getting, has gotten a raw deal. And also, a lot of focus has been on the roger stone sentencing that happened this, the issue that happened this week. A very similar thing with the flynn case where prosecutors put forward a sentencing recommendation that included perhaps some jail time for flynn. They then pressured the prosecutors and ultimately that sentencing was reversed. Them, actually, probation would be fine. The issue is that to observers, it looks like an attempt by the attorney general to get another bite at the apple in terms of the flynn case. They go back to jm, peter strzok, people President Trump has really targeted and say they should face their own criminal penalties and have not. So what the goals are, when it would finish, we dont know what the answers are. You mentioned the prosecutor looking is that this from the Eastern District of missouri. Is that in itself somewhat unusual . That youre bringing a prosecutor very far removed, away from the trappings of washington . The iner workingings of this particular investigation from the beginning . To have a look at it . Thats a great point. It is very similar to what attorney general barr did in terms of tapping the u. S. Attorney in connecticut to for the russia investigation. This is not something people i talked to say it is tim cal, if there is an issue, you thought something may not have happened correctly in the flynn case or in the handling of the interview by the two fbi agents. Then would you first go to the fbi. There are systems in place within the Justice Department. Theres an Inspector General within the fbi. There are offices tasked with looking into what may or may not have gone wrong. To reach outside into the field is unusual in and of itself. All right. Stay with me. I want to ask our former federal prosecutors, first of all torsion give me their take. Give me your take on William Barrs decision to open an investigation. Essenti essentially into the fbi. Yes. So there are investigations as people perceived as the president s enemies, an introduce mccabe, hillary clinton, james comey. When theyre done in good faith and they clear the names of those people, barr and trump order doovers. Today we learned that barr has appoint someday random prosecutor from st. Louis to look at the Michael Flynn guilty plea. Well, Michael Flynn pled guilty. He put his hand up and swore under oath that he committed crimes. There is no legal reason to reexamine this case. It is another example of barr weaponizing the awesome power of the Justice Department to carry out trumps part sandal politics. Let me get that specific bit that paul raised. About the fact Michael Flynn raised his hand and said i am guilty of what youre accusing me of doing. Do you know legal system better than i do. How rare is it that the government comes to someone who says, i committed a crime and they say, hey, were going to reinvestigate they. Something doesnt look right on why you pled guilty to committing this crime. Thats a softball question. Let me tell what you a guilty plea hearing is. Professor paul butler can tell you the same thing. When a defendant goes into a guilty plea hearing, they raise their hand and under oath, they say im guilty. Michael flynn one of the best companies in the company representing him. There was a statement of fact that he signed. When i did hundreds of thousands of guilty pleas, myself or assume advised in my 30 years with doj, that person signs that. That statement of facts backs confession. That can be used in a trial if mr. Flynn withdraws from the plea. So if his plea is removed, it is an apparent victory. If it goes to trial, he would be a moron if he did, the state of facts that he agreed to will be exhibit 1 of the government. Thats how a guilty pleark it is doubly rare that a judge will allow it. This is what i think. My opinion, he seems to contradict himself. He says hes not influenced by President Trump. I came in to serve as attorney general. The thing im most responsible for are the things brought to me for decision. I will make those decisions based on what i think is the right thing to do. Im not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. This is the same guy who said, the president s tweeting is making his job impossible. So hes like, hey, he can tweet whatever he wants. If thats the case, then why is he also by his own words, saying hes not under any kind of influence . It is hard to square. It is objection he has taken decision thats seem to be in response to the president s tweets and outrageous over time of hes installed layers of political oversight on the same department he leads. Hes the boss. There are procedures in place. There is an i. G. He is putting these people throughout who report back to him. I think there are two audiences for it. The first is President Trump and the second is ongoing cases against other friends of the president or ongoing sentencing decisions. It seems the fire walls are not doing their job. A rule of law that applies to everyone equally, and it doesnt matter if youre friends with the president. He thinks everything is political. So he cant conceive of this idea, it doesnt matter. So let me get your thoughts on this. William barr said nobody should enter gear the department of justice. Watch this. I think there is a spy he, yes, spying did occur. It is the left engaged in the systematic shredding of norms and undermining the rule of law. The evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. So we showed you on the split screen. The moment he said what he said there. On the right was william barr also saying back in 2001, if you dont mess with it, dont interfere, dont get involved. So my question to you is, what if anything can be done now to check attorney general barr . Well, he serves at the pleasure of the president. Hes acting like the president s defense lawyer than the attorney general of the United States. So yes. Congress can have oversight hearings. Where they subpoena him. Last time he didnt bother to show up. Yesterday he tweeted, yesterday barr said in an interview, if the president continues to tweet and interfere, he cant do his jock. Today president tweeted and interfered. If barr really believed in the importance of the independence of the Justice Department, he would resign woefl stand up for the good name of all those prosecutors who are watching their beloved institution go up in flames. Watch what he does. What he does is to continue to do these partisan political investigations of the president s enemies. Let me get your thoughts on this really quickly. When the attorney general says the tweet go makes it impossible for me to do my job, what do you think he means by my job . To clean up this mess and the president is drawing so much attention to it that the media and everybody who is critical is focused on it . What do you think he means by that . Well, i hesitate to get into the brain of bill barr. Im going to take a stab at it. His job is to do bidding of the president of the United States. Number one. Number two, the put his thumb on certain cases such as roger stone. I want to get, dispel an untruth that mr. Barr has said. He knew from day one what the sentencing recommendation for roger stone was going to be. Because it was one of the highest profile cases. They could weekly memos about what will happen in the case. And bill barr for a fact knew that we were going, we, the partner in justice would recommend 7 to 9 years. He was not accurate. He did not fwhak decision to withdraw that recommendation until after that tweet. He gave the impression that he had made decision before trumps tweet. That was really disingenuous in my view. Where do we go from here . You had the department of justice say they wont prosecute Andrew Mccabe for what they said did he wrong. Where does everything go from here . What are you tracking next . Well, one of the things what happens to the relationship between President Trump and attorney general barr. This is an attorney general that President Trump has said is finally the attorney general whose dreams that he wanted from the start. The first real public tension weve seen so much what happens there . The other things pardons. Is President Trump looking for, toward pardoning either Michael Flynn or roger stone or both . And the third thing is, roger stone going to appear in court next week. That will be quite a moment. Well see how that goes down. And then Michael Flynns case is still before a judge. Hes looked at all the facts of the case and said theres something improper or untoward about way his case was handled. Thats false. Theres no there, there. So it will be playing out in the coming days. All right some of the excellent reporting. Keep up the good work. Thank you very much. Coming up, much more on this breaking news with a key lawmaker overseeing the Justice Department and who will soon question bill barr under oath. Plus, donald trump admits the truth about Rudolph Giulianis admission to dig up dirt in ukraine. Saying the quiet bit out loud. And well talk 2020 and the clash between billionaire and the selfdescribed democrat socialist. And a special valentines edition of fallback friday. They just literally wrote the book on love. I like liberty mutual. They get that no two people are alike and customize your Car Insurance so you only pay for what you need. What do you think . I dont see it. Only pay for what you need. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Its not getting in my way. . I had enough joint pain, swelling, tenderness. Much better. My psoriasis, clearer. Cosentyx works on all of this. Four years and counting. 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They have night and weekend appointments too. Hes here. Bill . Karolyn . Nope no, just a couple of rocks. Download the my account app to manage your appointments making todays Xfinity Customer Service simple, easy, awesome. Ill pass. Were back with more breaking news out of Justice Department. Attorney general william barr tapping an outside prosecutor as weve been reporting, to look into Michael Flynns guilty plea. It cops as william barr supports a plot to reduce trump aide roger stones extension. But telling trump to stop tweeting about it. To have public statements and tweets made about the department, about people in the department, our men and women here. About cases pending in the department. About judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job. All right. But on the surface of it, if anyone is buying what william barr says, theyre certainly not showing it. House intelligence chairman adam schiff writing, barr fools no one. He is a wit go accomplice to trumps attack on the rule of law. The former fdny chief saying, barr is, quote, full of it. And today marks one year since william barr was sworn in. Todays news only fuels that criticism saying hes acting more like trumps personal lawyer than the attorney general of the United States. We find ourselves i think for the first time with an attorney general who really is the president s defense lawyer. He is the attorney general of the United States of america. Not the attorney general of donald trump. The attorney general seemed almost to be acting as the cowboyor for the defense. For the counsellor for the president. To see this attorney general who quite frankly has acted more like the president s personal attorney than the peoples attorney is very scary. I am now joined by congresswoman Sheila Jackson lee who sits on the Judiciary Committee. First i want to get your reaction. What is your reaction to william barr tapping an outside prosecutor to look into the case of Michael Flynn who has already pleaded guilty . I first with ant to say for the American People, thank you for having me, we do believe in the right to a jury by he our peers. If to really denigrate the fact everyone has that right. I do want to take us down memory lane for just a moment and say this is a department of justice in chaos. You remember when the president first became president. He began to, what he has the right to do, he began to fire u. S. Attorneys that he said he would keep. Particularly the u. S. Attorney in the Southern District of new york. First saying, i would like to you stay and then once hearing about maybe the attitude or positions of legality that this u. S. Attorney might be pursuing, he was summarily fired. So weve had the tampering from the zbing the Judiciary Committee has not taken this lightly. I believe what we have today is a continuing journey of chaos and it goes beyond the fact of someone having due process or equal rights under the law. It is excessive rights under the law for friends of the president , as compared to the average citizen every day that appears in the federal courts of america. So this is shocking. There are line attorneys on this case. We know general flynn wanted this case reopened. Now we have outside prosecutors. Were also aware that theyve been flown from around the country and theyve been interrogating the u. S. Attorneys in the washington, d. C. , u. S. Attorneys office. What does that feel like when youve sworn an oath t