they were caught on the stories that matter the most on al-jazeera. oh i maryam namazie and london just a quick look at the top stories this hour now israel's attack any general says he intends to indict prime minister benjamin netanyahu for bribery fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases as likud party is calling it political persecution ahead of april's election netanyahu himself has dismissed the charges against him saying they'll collapse like a house of cards remember. i mean but soon the good will be for three years they have been conducting against as a political witch hunt an unprecedented witch hunt which aims to topple the right

wing government and bring to power the leftist party of lapita and guns but have put inhumane pressure on the state attorney general. but it's methe has more on this now from west jerusalem. he is the first sitting israeli prime minister to be charged with bribery fraud and breach of trust but benjamin netanyahu says he's innocent and will stay in his post there's no legal requirement for him to step down the position parties will appeal to the supreme court say look at sloths look logical the job of the prime minister is a very complicated job because those sorts of security issues insist that the comic issues you can go to law serve spend days and. the court netanyahu is in the middle of an election campaign which if you wins puts him on course to be israel's longest serving prime minister oh yes there is nothing and there will be nothing he's told supporters. here and can't rely on him but investigators say netanyahu made

decisions to benefit a friend who is the main shareholder in israel's biggest internet infrastructure provider in return you get positive coverage from this friends popular news website . netanyahu is charged with fraud and breach of trust because excepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of lavish gifts including cigars and pink champagne from an israeli american entertainment magnate and there's a further breach of trust charge over allegations the prime minister promised to economically hobble one newspaper in return for favorable coverage from its rival as of our view the corruption investigation has been going on for years and doesn't seem to have dented netanyahu is popularity poll like that guy only b.b. he's innocent the supporters of same most of the media. the left wing. has been using this to sway the voters of the likud that is.

haunting him and they want to topple the regime and they want to go. to him and netanyahu must now pay for his army of lawyers out of his own pocket the government accountants of all of the prime minister to repay three hundred thousand pounds given by a wealthy cousin towards his legal fees they noted that netanyahu is an affluent man forbes israel estimate is wealth at around forty million dollars but it's met al-jazeera western. in all the developments the united nations is saying the israeli crackdown on palestinian protesters in gaza might amount to war crimes u.n. investigators say israeli soldiers intentionally opened fire on civilians israel has rejected the report branding it hostile untrue and biased. u.s. president donald trump says he had to walk away from a nuclear deal with north korea because kim jong un demanded washington lift all

its sanctions in order to progress with denuclearization north korea's foreign minister has disputed trump's explanation for the collapse of the summit in vietnam walkathons prime minister says that as a gesture of peace his country will release on friday an indian pilot whose plane shot down india and pakistan each say they shot down each other's fighter jets over the disputed kashmir region where tensions have been escalating in recent weeks. and at least five people have been killed in a car bomb attack close to the home of a judge in somalia's capital mogadishu police say it was a plot to assassinate of bashir omar the chief judge of somalia's appeals court security forces fought off gunmen who try to force their way into his house. coming up next battlefield washington looks at alleged russian interference in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election.

ah donald trump do solemnly swear donald trump do solemnly swear that i will faithfully execute. faithfully execute the office of president of the united states the authors of president of the united states the day trump this morning and the two thousand and sixteen election that secured his victory is already under investigation did russia help them get the presidency. so help me god read one of. my.

as he walks on pennsylvania avenue from where he took the oath of office towards the white house he steps onto a political battlefield. pennsylvania avenue is the heart of washington and it connects major political players congress the f.b.i. the department of justice. the press. the white house. this is the story set at one of the most powerful capitals in the world a political and judicial conflict. a battle that isp. triumph against those who believe he was an accomplice and russia's interference in. a battle for the truth about the president of the united states and for the principles of american democracy.

according to top u.s. intelligence chiefs the russians interfered in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election putin they say developed a clear preference for trump over clinton so russia's intelligence services stole and leaked thousands of clinton's e-mails to discredit her. two weeks before his inauguration they brief trump. trump rejects their conclusions he does not want his victory to be questioned. the intelligence agencies maintain their findings and partially release them to the public they say putin ordered an influence campaign to help trump win the election. putin's role is immediately raised in congress which calls the chiefs of the

intelligence community to testify. in. their question by democratic party sen i just go down the line in. any of your careers have you ever seen this level of russian interference in our political process and start with drucker komi and just going on the lord no. oh i have no. no no. i think very few documents that i can remember would have had the political weight and the political influence of this particular document. the purpose of making that report paul blood was to make sure the american people

world where some of the dynamics going on behind the scenes this is the first time that a major covert action major clandestine action against the united states. at the very heart of our democratic process had been tempted because of the sophistication. and then the pervasiveness of those attempts to have a widespread impact it was broader than anything that had been seen in prior actions which i repeat to you what has intelligence community you go fishing with is blaming bush and president vladimir putin who were going to russia tried everything possible to get to the november election i call it intelligence and there are multiple sources. only three days after the intelligence report a new classified document makes the headlines i want to be very perfect precise

here multiple u.s. officials with direct knowledge of the briefings tell c.n.n. that classified documents included allegations that russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and financial information about mr trump this is a confidential report written by an ex british spy christopher steele on secretly links between trump his businesses and the russians. it claims moscow has been helping trump all along with the regular flow of intelligence and that the russians have compromising material on. the main point of the steel dossier that there was an ongoing attempt by the russians to get close to the trump campaign is undisputed at this point he doesn't like the fact that the press said it but it is out there now mr president elect go ahead present it as if you were trying are not

a decision now can you get with the still dossier made public news trucks battle with the press intensifies rice or why isn't a pointless reason why would you say categorically why should the president like can you give us are going to be reading us can you give us are going to. he did not enough record. during his first weeks at the white house trump is on the defensive the man he just appointed national security adviser general michael flynn is caught in the eye of the storm. he lied about his contacts with moscow and the russian embassy and washington. the press reveals it and trump has to retreat mike flynn is a fine person and i asked for his resignation he respectfully gave it flynn is the first victim of the battle of washington but firing flint is not enough the question remains what are the relations between trump and moscow to knowingly

cooperate with a hostile foreign power to take over the leadership of the united states. for many months to come finding the truth will test the pillars of the american political system the independence of justice of the freedom of the press and the rule of law. under pressure from the press and from the democrats congress gets involved. and congress before the two thousand and eighteen midterm elections the republicans trumps party are the majority and the democrats are the opposition but on some crucial issues it's a tradition for the two parties to work together this is the spirit of bipartisanship just. it's just. since keeping the american people safe and maintaining a such

a strong homeland in national security is so important to this country it is the issue that demands the most bipartisan support and so democrats and republicans demanded that there be a bipartisan investigation demanded that there be bipartisan hearings and i was hopeful that this would lead to bipartisan action congressional committees have power and they can summon whomever they want as witnesses and lying to them is a crime their public hearings are followed by millions of americans and so high ranking high level government officials came to the congress the united states in front of the american people under oath and gave their assessment about russia's interference in our election a key figure of these hearings is james combing the director of the f.b.i. who had that the staff of more than thirty five thousand men and women. i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the f.b.i. as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian

government's efforts to interfere in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts and early may two thousand and seventeen as she is grilled over the involvement of tromping and komi himself this gets into a minefield and have you ruled out the president out of state but i don't. i don't people over interpret his answer i'm not going to comment on anyone in particular so potentially the president ited states could be a target of your ongoing investigation. i just worry i don't want to answer that that that's seems to me unfair speculation we will follow the evidence we'll try and find as much as we can we'll follow the evidence wherever it leads by refusing to say publicly that trump is not under investigation komi is just put himself on

a collision course with the president. this is an n.b.c. news special report hears lester holmes and good day everyone we learned a short time ago that president trump has fired f.b.i. director james comey we less than a week after coleman's hearing in congress trump fires him an attack against the f.b.i. and explosive news. bombshell from the white house wait to be i director james cool we fired my president we we don't know this is something that caught all the law enforcement community by surprise and it got the intelligence community in washington d.c. surprised. and the dismissal came in harsh terms in a letter signed by the president you are terminated immediately.

i was stunned i think most of the american public was stunned i didn't even realize the president could fire the f.b.i. director the f.b.i. director serves by law for a ten year period and so it came as a shock i talked to a number of friends colleagues after that happened who were still in the f.b.i. and it was this essence of i can't believe the president did this bought i think he was just exercising what he believed was his authority just as if he was the c.e.o. of trump enterprises. and congress one question needs to be addressed by the investigative committee why did trump fire james komi. why do you believe you were fired. so i don't know for sure i believe the prick think the president is worried that i was fired because of the russian

versification something about the way i was conducting it the president felt created pressure on him they wanted to relieve he was asking for something and i was refusing to give it. and fact early in his term trumpet asked to speak to me in private. there was a meeting at the white house a one on one meeting between trump and call me call me must have had his antenna up because he felt like something was wrong because as soon as he was done that meeting he wrote up these memos. after meeting with trump call me sat in his car and wrote down what was discussed the meeting was about general fled the advisor who had lied about his contacts with russia trump said he hoped komi come let the matter go. i hope you can let this go now those are his exact words is that correct correct and you wrote them here and you put them in quotes correct ok he did not order you to let it go it is

a present united states with me alone saying i hope this i took it as this is what he wanted me to do i didn't obey that but that's why it took. colin's account is correct if the president calls in the director the f.b.i. and says can you can you drop the case you guys have against this person for political reasons i think that absolutely is obstruction of justice. american law says anybody from an average citizen all the way up to the president who tries to block in a criminal investigation for the wrong reasons with what we call corrupt intent a bad motive. is guilty of obstruction of justice did you at any time former f.b.i. director james comey in any way shape or form to close or to back down the

investigation into michael flynn and also as you will know next question next question. soon after firing the f.b.i. director trump is about to face a new challenge. feature breaking news right now tonight i'm sure this would be just disappointing the special counsel to counsel robert. bobb over to now oversee the pressure probe and look at the possible connections between top campaign associates and rush and this is. only eight days after the firing of james combing the justice department appoints robert muller to take over the russian probe. for this mission robert mueller was called out of retirement he had been director of the f.b.i. for twelve years and in two thousand and thirteen he had left the law enforcement agency with full honors and his farewell speech he proclaimed his unshakable faith

in the rule of law. have always been proud to say that i work for the department of justice because of that for which it stands which is an unyielding commitment to the rule of law and to the safety and security of the citizens we serve a know. quite well. i worked with him for about four years when i was the cia deputy director and he was the director of the f.b.i. . he's not a self promoting individual and he has a very high standard for what is true and what is not true administrator pistole he pointed me as his number two person in the f.b.i. as a deputy director and so i had the chance to get to know him and then. work with him so let me say a few words about director ball or politics or just don't play any role in his

calculations so he is all about finding the truth and doing it under the rule of wall so yeah he's a man to be told that. robert muller is placed under the authority of the department of justice and it's deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. his new orders give him far reaching powers. moller can investigate moscow's relations with the trump campaign and any other matters. most are wastes no time immediately orders the preservation of millions of official documents forbidding the destruction of records that could be useful in the russia probe e-mails phone records audio recordings metadata and storage devices recordings adventure or accident the buildings video surveillance. once a person or

a company or or a bureaucracy knows that there's a criminal investigation to destroy evidence after that becomes a federal crime and so i think mahler's first move was a smart one but the order also shows that there is a concern that these documents might be destroyed by a white house that is trying to hide the truth from investigators. was only the beginning of a bitter struggle between mahler and the president of the united states. so we have mr miller who's known as a tough cop he's a big impose in six foot something experienced justice department official he's a tough cop the press was saying he's a tough cop he always gets his mail. and he will press and squeeze and he will find what is truth and what is fiction he is

careful he is by the book he does not speak publicly other than his court filings he is incredibly hard working and focused mr trump on the other hand is a bulldog and it is impulsive where i could stand in the middle if if they have a new and shoot somebody and i wouldn't lose any voters ok it's like incredible there are not two more different people on earth than bob mahler and president trump and very early on in that in this whole process i think the trunk people realize that the best defense would be a political one and not a legal one legally they really don't have a lot to stand on trump and his people made a determination very early on we're going to claim that this whole thing is politically motivated is a witch hunt that a whole new way if they were the witch hunt i would call it the rigged to which aren't. ok when john cena. to when she was a democrat gets fired when you don't add something. on the phone to you which she

really was. is washington celebrates the fourth of july and. and instead a major offensive against the president is about to be launched. the surprise attack comes from the center of washington from the press. the new york times claims the trump campaign was in secret contact with russian officials five months before the two thousand and sixteen election a major scoop. this was the work of our washington best it was over and over weeks that we learned more and more about the meeting and the fact is that

occurred. so yes it was very exciting to have that scoop again we didn't know that much about the meeting we didn't learn it all at once but we've built on it since then you know a dollar is looking at that meeting the meeting is organized to be a emails between a son of the president and an intermediary who offered quote information that would incriminate hillary and would be very useful to donald trump ultra sensitive stuff he adds don jr answers if it's what you say i love and the meeting takes place on the ninth of june two thousand and sixteen in new york at trump tower around the table donald trump's son his son in law his campaign director paul manna for intermediary and for russian nationals the news spread like wildfire according to the new york times to new york times report on to the new york times reports the president's son donald trump jr was promised damaging information about the hillary clinton for agreeing to meet last summer with a russian lawyer

a russian lawyer question has and actions with the from lynn when donald trump jr responded enthusiastically to the idea of receiving information that would be harmful to hillary clinton i think that was a gift to russia it represented an attempt by. russia to have a base of influence if you will. the news comes at a time when trump was in hamburg for an international summit where he had a meeting with vladimir putin and. what we look forward to are a lot of very positive things that are here for the united states and for everybody . would want to be with you. if you. immediately after this hand shake the trump camp has to do damage control over the new york times. put out a statement saying the story was wrong. you know from air force one they were very very alarmed by it on the plane ride that to the united states is when the

president and his team come cox this story about how the trump tower meeting was about adoptions. flying back with his father sends an explanation to the press. at the meeting he says was merely about the adoption of russian children in the united states. so the million dollar question with the trump tower meeting is what did the president know about it and when did his son tell him about the meeting at a time junior called his father and said hey we have this meeting coming up with some russian people that are offering us information and the president said great go for it let me know he's part of a conspiracy that is a not to bring someone into a conspiracy. back. i came up with the term fake news it's a lot of fake news this is fake news put out by the media schooled fake news people

back there you know those very dishonest people back there the. press. the. words have meaning and power and a lot of people myself included good republicans were going to go for pizza don't you still do that call us the enemy of the people is just going too far the press is trying to report the facts as they see them and the president has decided that he would like to shoot the messenger. lost and abandoned. found and say. one on one east reveals how one is giving pakistan's lost children a new chance at life on al-jazeera. the latest news

as it breaks hours after the explosions to the point to say the city is safe and the civilians one of the targets. with detailed coverage despite the high custody rate young men are still volunteering to fight this partly out of a sense of tough fealty to see. from around the world it must see it different now that is if you the finks fortune five many many people here in the press to rip up the. christian priest if you are a friend of the palestinians is a true friend over everyone and champion of the palestinian cause. and activist who is willing to sacrifice his freedom. the for his beliefs. al-jazeera world tells the extraordinary story of the archbishop and the piano.

al-jazeera where every. hello i'm maryam namazie and london just a quick look at the top stories now israel's attorney general says he intends to indict prime minister benjamin netanyahu for bribery fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases netanyahu has hit back those saying that the charges will collapse in his words like a house of cards and that his likud party is calling it political persecution all this ahead of elections in april remember. for three years they have been conducting against a political witch hunt an unprecedented witch hunt which aims to topple the

government and bring to power the leftist party of liberty to guns but it puts inhumane pressure on the state attorney general on and on the development of the united nations says the israeli crackdown on palestinian protesters in gaza might amount to war crimes u.n. investigators say israeli soldiers intentionally opened fire on civilians israel has rejected the report branding it hostile untrue and biased u.s. president donald trump says he had to walk away from a nuclear deal with north korea because of unacceptable demands from kim jong un trump said the second summer ended early because kim wanted washington to lift all of its sanctions in order to progress with the nuclear eyes ation north korea's foreign minister though has now disputed that explanation saying they are asked for some sanctions to be lifted not all of them. pakistan's prime minister says his country will release on friday captured indian pilots as a gesture of peace india and pakistan each say they shot down each other's fighter jets over the disputed kashmir region where tensions have been escalating in recent

weeks. at least five people have been killed in a car bomb attack close to the home of a judge in somalia's capital mogadishu police say it was a plot to assassinate bashir omar the chief judge of somalia's appeals court security forces fought off gunmen who tried to force their way into his house. and a venezuelan opposition leader one has been meeting with brazil's president or both sanaa row on the latest leg of his tour with south american allies said there was no chance of dialogue with president address government without discussing elections why don't you head for paraguayan on friday before then returning to venezuela. battlefield washington now continues but i'll see you in about twenty five minutes time with the news hour do stay with al-jazeera.

thank. you.

this is the story set in one of the most powerful capitals in the world a political and judicial conflict. a battle that has pitted donald trump against those who believe he was an accomplice and russia's interference. could soon yellowing. cooperate with a hostile foreign power to take over the leadership of the state. this is the first time. a major covert action major. action against the united states at the very heart of our democratic process at the text of. an october two thousand and seventeen special counsel robert muller issues his first indictments against people close to the president. trumps campaign director and gates deputy director of the campaign

are both charged for breaking a series of laws papadopoulos foreign affairs advisor to the campaign is charged for having lied to the f.b.i. . for promotion for us to be patient and zero d. and on his first targets to the. right here by the f.b.i. . interviewed. a string is a for each. side about his contacts with foreign nationals series of people in d.c. suddenly in deep deep trouble with those charged by muller become fair game for the press even if they're not directly linked to the russian and or. ference and its two thousand and sixteen election. when the initial indictments

were issued by mueller people rightfully said wait a minute this is supposed to be about russia so what's going on and a lot of people have said none of this is collusion who cares why is moller charging these crimes if it's not collusion no collusion there's no collusion to seems to be the focus no pollution no of drugs you know nothing no police no good whatsoever present trumps reactions or that any time one of his colleagues or friends has been indicted or even pled guilty for him the litmus test of the bottom line is did they stab us if there was collusion between president trump and his inner circle and the russians and thus far that has not been charged publicly so that's what he is. claiming there's a victory one thing that people i think really misunderstand about the american federal criminal justice system is just how much we rely on cooperating witnesses the defendants the people of being charged the people who have done something wrong

have the option of cooperating why then would incriminate characters cooperate with the investigation it's all about leverage you have to charge someone with a crime that you have the evidence on and then hope that that person is unwilling to take the risk of going to jail for a long time and instead decides to come in and cooperate in this drama between miller and the white house there's there's a lot of behind the scenes negotiation and strategy play it's very much a game as muller builds up his case his investigation suddenly faces a setback. we start with new explosive information p.p.c. here in the investigation in his job one of my trusted aides is discredited efficiently people still shows name is peter charles going to be an agent peter struck and strikes alleged mistress an f.b.i.

under named lisa paige. the press publishes the text messages of peter strong and lisa page. start with a trusted adviser a bomb all or transcripts of his messages show that he was for him at least anti trump. oh my god he's an idiot says struck. he's awful says page. i have no idea how destabilizing his presidency would be. struck was dismissed but the damage was done and congress presidents can't can now use strikes opinion to claim that the f.b.i. and the special counsel are politically tainted now the investigations into donald trump have been infected. with the virus of severe bias the pro trump media escalates the attack it denounces it as a conspiracy theory betting it was weaponized to destroy humanity. is underway

right here some sort of subversion campaign and intelligence agencies are running a classic dissin from ation psychological warfare operation against a sitting president of the united states to topple his government for trumped diehards the investigations that are closing in on the president since are weapons in the hands of an anti transition deep state there is colucci in the cia the n.s.a. the f.b.i. the justice department the news media politicians in both parties there colluding working together with strategies talking points fake evidence to weaken embarrass and bring down president trump. the idea of a deep state is one of the dumbest ideas i have ever heard. there is no such thing

as a deep state i have not seen that the state this is another made up conspiracy theory that there is a deep state out to get trump he's always looking for ways to blame his own problems on other people and this is another one totally false. but the deep state notion drives. some have suggested that the deep state is going to rise up and stage a coup why because everybody's talking about it and that's the point it comes out of the white house the cable news networks pick it up they talk about it put it into circulation guess what congress hears it so it's all very very circular is say it enough to say it enough it becomes its own sort of bizarre reality. and it's ridiculous. we've been hijacked by a deep state it is addition. father we pray for president trump yes lord give him extra calcium in his backbone yes god made his enemies confound his

enemies alou not fall into their traps this we pray in the name of jesus amen and you mistake you for watching. five feet floor three two why. should. i. and congress well the consensus over investigating the russian meddling withstand the pressure. there was a hope an expectation that congress as a bipartisan institution could get to the bottom of all this and we've been through it well enough at the top of. the leader of the democrats in the house intelligence committee has to admit that there will be no consensus on the issue.

last night the majority on the intelligence committee made the decision to prematurely shut down the russian best occasion the only authorized investigation in the house of representatives that was a terrible disservice to the country and the american people this is no way to run investigation it is only a way to go through the motions to give the pretense of trying to find the truth the truth that the congress' failure to uncover the whole truth leads this task to only one man robert mueller. on the ninth of april two thousand and eighteen a new york attorney becomes the latest target of bob mullen michael cohen donald trump's personal lawyer michael cohen is donald trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer this is the president's signature and he has the ear. as the keys to the kingdom he knows all the secrets about donald trump through. hard work.

the f.b.i. searched cohen's office at the request of a local prosecutor on charges of financial fraud. the move initiated by bomb miller as a direct challenge to the president himself. so i just heard that they've broken through the office of one of my personal attorneys a good man i said that is really now at a whole. new level of unfair that. cohen is someone who might know about trump's alleged real estate dealings in russia. that was fairly common knowledge in the real estate community and the finance community in the political community the russians were funding in various ways many major trunk real estate projects cohen my also know if the president lied when a few months earlier he denied having anything to do with russian i don't nothing

in russia i have no loans in russia i don't have any deals in russian the lack of financial transparency of the trump organization and the extent to which they have received financing from russian oligarchs or russian interests is unknown to the american people even to this day i have nothing to do with russia haven't made a phone call to russia in years don't speak to people from russia not that i wouldn't and i just have nobody to speak to did putin help trump to win the election is there a secret pact between the two men and if so cohen could be a key witness a major element of the special counsel strategy and i immediately recognize the strategy that muller was following because my own background as a federal prosecutor was doing organized crime mafia cases it is incredibly rare that you're able to right off the bat make a case against the top guys usually the way you have to build these kate. says if you have to do it brick by brick and you have to start on the outside and work your

way in start at the bottom and work your way up and so in the mafia cases we would start with the low ranking guys and if we could get one to flip and cooperate he would then give us information about these two guys higher up the chain and you have to build up and it seems that that's what robert muller has done here the pressure on cohen builds investigators are digging into his life the f.b.i. also seems communications between michael campbell again to president truman. who comes in life and possibly in donald trump's life the question as asking himself at the white house tonight is will michael cohen crack trump's lawyer is faced with a choice remain silent and go to jail or reveal his client secrets and bear his wrath there is this notion of loyalty one of donald trump sort of defining beliefs is you're either loyal to me or you're dead to me and that's consistent with the way the mafia. operates if you are loyal to the boss and the family how can she

keep his lawyer loyal. he enjoys an extraordinary constitutional power the right to pardon he said he makes an expeditious use of the. president started the park far right commentators here i'm just hearing president donald trump has officially parted for america how confident sensation is considering a pardon now for the industry which is one terminally very very expensive to get frankly they're going to hurt. the party girl bird positive thing for a president i think you see the way i'm using that yes there will be more bark. trump issued some high profile pardons and i think by doing that i think he was sending a message to some of the people who might slip on him michael cullen paul metaphor and others of hey i'm using this this part of power and perhaps there could be one for you down the line if you stay quiet there is basically a deal if you will an informal deal that if you keep your mouth shut then i'll take

care of you. if witnesses keep silent it weakens mahler and his investigation and. no i'm not above the law but yes i do have an absolute right to pardon myself i have the absolute right i don't have to do and never did anything wrong or you know that better than anybody the idea that. a u.s. president would even talk about or even consider pardon themselves is just unprecedented and i think undermines the credibility of our whole way of governance and democracy in general so when you have president trump who seems to think that he is above the law it's antithetical not just to the american idea but to the idea of modern democracy he is one person who is in charge of the state on behalf of all of us he has not seen more than a year into his presidency trump's actions are about to test the very heart of the

american system and. if it was then. it's. higher. than average corrupted no it is not a non-issue are we back to shoot you or me in the flesh to be brought under control just three hundred forty three years to be very strict. as the attacks on miller intensified a man stands up to protect the special counsel rod rosenstein the number two at the department of justice he appointed muller and as the legal authority to oversee his operations and to fire him. on assuming but steady he has been shielding smaller for months. have you seen good cause to fire special counsel no thank you if you were ordered today to fire mr mohler what would you do if there were good cause i would act if there were no good cause i would not and you have seen no good cause

so far correct rod rosa's that is has become a beacon for anger. and from congressional republicans and i think they're disappointed i think they hoped that he would be partisan because he is a long time republican but instead rosenstein has shown himself to be sara lee independent and a law enforcement person first and congress trumps allies fire at will at rosenstein and i'm not keeping any information from conyers cause of you hide as you near me should we allow those he does not call you why didn't he hasn't presented his first find a good fundraiser here and just you know we've come to the information that you can answer if you have evidence of wrongdoing by any member of the trunk campaign presented to the dam grand jury whatever you guy. finish it the hell up to attack someone like that is very damaging ultimately to the system and importantly to the confidence that americans have in their government when elected

representatives politicize the judicial process where this is lee the end dependence and justice. what is remarkable now is the white house and the justice department are at war our justice department and our f.b.i. . after start doing their job and doing it right and doing it. the president's view seems to be and his lawyers have said this he's in charge of the executive branch he can do whatever he wants i want to stay out but at some point if it doesn't straighten out properly i want to do their job i will get involved and i'll get in there by half. and i but rod rosenstein does not blink direct and there are people who have been. making threats privately and publicly against me for quite some time and i think they should understand by now the department justice is not going to be extorted we're going to do what's required by the rule

of law and any kind of threats that anybody makes are not gonna affect the way we do our job we have a responsibility and we take an oath that's the whole yes everybody in the department takes that zero three one hundred fifteen thousand employees and if they violated they know they're going to be held accountable and i know those folks know that i'm not going to violate my oath. and mid july two thousand and eighteen then once capitol hosts the first summit between donald trump and. just three days before and washington rod rosenstein made a momentous announcement a new wave of indictments by bob mullen. an afternoon indictment charges twelve russian military officers by name for conspiring to interfere with the twenty sixteen presidential election according to the allegations in the indictment

the defendant's work for two units of the g.r.u. the g.r.u. russia's military intelligence service as accused of conspiracy against the united states units and gauged an active cyber operations to interfere in the. twenty sixteen presidential election. the russian agents targeted in particular the computers of trump's adversaries the friends covertly monitor the computer implanted hundreds of files containing malicious computer code and stole e-mails and other doctors mahler's indictment of twelve russian military intelligence officers conspiring to interfere with the two thousand and sixteen u.s. presidential election to benefit. implicated russia at the highest level. the indictment of a dozen russian g.r.u. intelligence officers in july twenty eight in was

a kind of turning point the election interference is now a fact of law as far as the united states is concerned and it is not something that the president can dismiss it is in fact a state operation by a hostile foreign power that i see is good with words when you go to the new issue was the easy bit so when you showed me to give neutering you do look would let me put it says. at a question just now president putin denied having anything to do with the election your fair answer twenty sixteen every u.s. intelligence agency has concluded that russia did my first question for you sir is who do you believe my people came to me they said they think it's russian i have president putin and he just said it's not russian i will say this i don't see any reason why it would be so i have great confidence in my intelligence people but

i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial thank you. he basically took the side of food over his own intelligence service and that was a really bad thing to do it was. the wrong thing to do the question then becomes what is it that the president obama's to the russians and what is his relationship with some suggest that he's an asset of putin's but we don't have evidence of that. i think what i would say is that this is someone putin can use for easily perhaps even without trump realizing he's being used. september two thousand and eighteen several of trump's close aides have agreed to cooperate with investigators. his former campaign director paul mann of course and

his lawyer michael cohen have already signed agreements with robert mueller. they all agree to cooperate with the investigation if they do so fully the prison sentences they are facing will be reduced apparently those close aides to trying to have slipped and are ready to share with bob muller the secrets of the president. president trump finds himself in a corner the walls are closing in on him many doesn't know where to run. him but they keep the yankees the impeach word impeach trump maxine waters we will impeach him but he didn't do anything wrong it doesn't matter we will impeach or. it is a hell of a place it was. november two thousand and eighteen the midterm elections are

approaching fast trump burns off the campaign trail. if this party keeps control over congress his legal troubles might fade away. by. the results are a blow to the president. the american voters give the house of representatives to the democrats. they now have the ability to proceed with intrusive congressional investigations into trump's conduct. the day after the vote the russian investigation comes back to haunt the president thank you mr president going back to the russia investigation some say that you could stop all this by going to insist i could fire everybody right now but i don't

want to stop it be what is a politically i don't like stopping it i don't want to do that but you're right i could end it right now i could say that investigation is over well on the russian vesta geisha are you concerned that that you may have not going to turn about anything with you may have a joint investigation because it's a hoax are you that's enough to put down the mike as president are you worried about indictments coming down and. shutting down the investigation will not be that easy for truong. as robert mueller plows ahead with his investigation and key witnesses start revealing trom secrets to future looks uncertain for the president but the battle is certainly not over americans may still be enforced surprise ending.

hello again a welcome back we have crossed the southern parts of australia we are looking at temperatures that are still into the mid to high thirty's in many locations now the break that we need is a funnel boundary that's back here towards the west but we don't expect to see much

of a change probably until we get towards the end of the weekend until then temperatures are going to be into the mid thirty's here for adelaide thirty seven degrees is going to be high here on friday over towards melbourne about thirty five to thirty six degrees there not really changing by the time we get towards saturday here towards the east it's going to be a mostly cloudy day for brisbane with some showers in your forecast as well as darwin some rain as well well for fiji over the last couple of days you are seeing a lot of that rain begin to dissipate all due to a tropical system making its way down here towards the south some rain will still be in your forecast over the next few days but conditions will be improving as we go into the weekend and here down towards new zealand things are looking much better we are going to be seeing partly cloudy conditions across much of the area christchurch though nineteen degrees there by the time we get toward saturday about twenty degrees in your forecast and then very quickly across parts of japan well not looking too bad most of the weather is going to be out here towards the pacific we are going to be clouds to the north but for tokyo it is going to be a partly cloudy day with temp has a ten in sendai eleven degrees. zero

. hello i'm maryam namazie this is the news hour live from london coming up in the next sixty minutes israel's prime minister dismisses a decision to indict him on corruption charges as a political witch hunt this is the u.n. says israeli forces might have committed war crimes in that crackdown on palestinians protesting in gaza also. they want to have to.

endure in turkey. we couldn't do that donald trump says he had to walk away from a deal with kim jong un but north korea's foreign minister disputes his explanation and of pakistan pledges to release a captured indian pilots as a peace gesture to ease tensions over kashmir. i'm joined again with the sports another english premier league manager gets the boot as follow him sack ready ery. israel's attorney general says he intends to indict prime minister benjamin netanyahu for bribery fraud and breach of trust in three separate corruption cases netanyahu has rejected the allegations saying they are politically motivated ahead of elections in april he claims he is the victim of an unprecedented witch hunt al jazeera has been at smith reports now from west jerusalem.