hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here and from wherever you are watching,ment president of the united states cannot obstruct justice so said president trump's lawyer and a new legal defense that is raising lots of eyebrows. plus on the attack, as the pressure builds in the investigation, the president lashes out at both the fbi and the department of justice. america's top law enforcement agencies. is the u.s. moving closer to a preemptive strike with north korea. they call on families to leave south korea. let's start with the breaking news.

cnn learned that president trump's attorney told him in january that michael flynn who was at the time the president's national security adviser misled the fbi. you are looking at live pictures of the president who just landed in salt lake city. he just got off air force 1. the latest revelation ties into the tweet over the weekend by the president on the president's account. this is what he tweeted. i had to fire general flynn because he lied to the vice president and the fbi. he pled guilty to the lies. it is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. there was nothing to hide. the president's attorney said he wrote that tweet for the president. in an interview he said he believes the president is safe from any obstruction of justice charge over the firing and the former fbi director james comey. the president cannot obstruct justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer and has

every right to express his view of any case. this morning before leaving for salt lake city, the president spoke about michael flynn. >> i feel badly for general flynn. i feel badly. he led a very strong and i feel badly, john. i will say this. hillary clinton lied many times to the fbi and nothing happened to her. flynn lie and they destroyed his life. i think it's a shame. hillary clinton on the fourth of july weekend went to the fbi not under oath. it was the most incredible thing anyone has ever seen. she lied many times and nothing happened to her. flynn lied and it's like they ruined his life. it's very unfair. >> once again the president now greeting some folks in salt lake city. he just arrived on air force 1. we will have live coverage of his events later in the day.

we will hear from him later this hour as well. in the meantime, let's go to our own. she is here with us right now. cara, what can you tell us about what the president knew and what he was told by his private attorney and his white house counsel and when he knew all the details about michael flynn. >> what we learned from our sources and reporting is that white house counsel doug mcgann told the president after a meeting with the acting attorney general sally yates that he believes that flynn had lied to mike pence when he said he didn't have conversations with the russian ambassador and misled the fbi during that interview. sally yates did not characterize flynn's testimony with the fbi, but that was his impression. we know that it was a week later that mcgann and the counsel's office received the testimony

from flynn's conversation with the russian ambassador and that led them to believe he had misled the fbi and pence and suggested that he be fired. >> basically the whole notion right now is that when the president actually spoke with the then fbi director james comey he knew precisely or almost precisely what flynn told the fbi. since then flynn pled guilty to lying to the fbi. >> right. what we know is that mcgann did not have the conversation or the details or the specifics of what flynn told the fbi. our understanding is that he didn't tell the president a crime had been committed. as far as the timeline goes, the president did know at least his lawyer believed that flynn was not honest with the fbi which

was days before the president later fired james comey. >> serious developments indeed. cara, thanks very much. all of the developments in the investigation can be difficult to follow, but let's walk through what we know right now. jessica is going to break it down for us. jessica, walk us through about this timeline about what everyone knew and when they knew it. these revelations are significant. >> they are and amid the revelations that michael flynn spoke about a un security council vote. the key questions of who knew what about his lies to the fbi and when did they know? let's start four days after the inauguration on january 24th that michael flynn was interviewed by the fbi at the white house. flynn of course has pleaded guilty to lying to fbi investigators during that

interview about the subject of the conversations with the ambassador. acting attorney general sally yates met with the counsel and warned him that flynn was lying about his calls with kiss li action and these were relayed to the american public. flynn account potentially be black mailed by the russians. yates never did say that flynn was under investigation. after that, january 30th is when sally yates was fired. soon after or around that time, that's when don mcgann told the president he believed that flynn had not told the truth with the fbi or in speaking with the vice president. the source said he did not tell the president that flynn violated the law in his interview or was under criminal investigation. all of this though leads to questions about obstruction of justice. what the president knew when he decided to fire james comey.

michael flynn resigned february 13th with the reasoning that he misled the president. one day after that, february 14th is when president trump med privately with the fbi director james comey. that's when the president asked him to drop the fbi investigation of flynn and we know that the investigation wasn't dropped. instead comey was fired in may and the president shortly after pointed directly to the russia investigation when asked why he terminated comey. take a listen. >> in fact when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election they should have won. >> that was in may. this entire timeline of events, it could bring into better focus the likely obstruction of justice probe that mueller's team is digging into. the president's lawyers today

are putting out the latest argument that there is no way the president can obstruct justice. >> that's the latest from his private attorney. thanks for that. democrats on the senate committee investigating russia's meddling into the presidential election are not taking president trump's tweet lightly. listen. >> the judiciary committee has an investigation going as well. it involves obstruction of justice. i think what we are beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice. >> there is a credible case of obstruction of justice against donald trump and to say that he is somehow above the law and cannot commit obstruction of justice simply because he is president of the united states is absurd. >> let's take a closer look at the case. legal analyst and watergate special prosecutor, thanks so

much for coming in. a big picture right now. where is this mueller investigation as far as you can tell? >> i think bob mueller is proceeding deliberately, thoroughly and without any political bias whatsoever. he is looking at the witnesses and he is making decisions about granting reduced sentences and reduced charges for cooperators. that's what prosecutors do. now he has made a decision with respect to general flynn. that's very important. giving the proximity of general flynn to president trump during the transition and during the time he was national security adviser. >> is it your sense that mueller is looking primarily at obstruction of justice charges? >> i don't think there is a primarily here.

this is a target-rich environment. they are active investigations about money laundering and foreign practices act violations. farrah violations with lobbying with turkey and russia. there is a whole variety in addition obstruction of justice that mr. mueller and the staff are looking into. >> you heard the latest news that is coming in quickly from your point of view as a former prosecutor. does this show obstruction of justice on the part of the president? >> it has always been problematic to look at how the president defended flynn after he knew he was lying. he was lying to the vice president and he was lying to the chief of staff. priebus.

he lied and we are getting more detailed about who told him and when. the question remains why was trump so interested in protecting flynn, so interested that he said to comey can you go easy on flynn. so interest that he made public pronouncements about flynn and very favorably to him. now that flynn has pleaded guilty, it appears the white house is ready to throw him under the bus. >> when the president's private attorney, john dowd, i don't know if you know him. >> i do. >> when he said the president is safe from obstruction of justice charge because the president in dowd's words cannot obstruction justice because he is the chief law enforcement officer and has the right to express his view on any case. you are smiling. >> he can express his view, but

he can't obstruct justice and get away it. if there is criminal intent, then they can be lodged. no man is above the law. we learned that in watergate. indeed, one of the central charges in watergate was the obstruction of justice through promises of clemency. through a variety of misuse of federal agencies such as the cia and fbi. and the irs. the list goes on and on and the obstruction of justice that was central to our case involved president nixon as a named uninduni unindicted coconspirator. >> in the articles of impeachment that were filed against richard nixon and you know this well.

one of the first articles was obstruction of justice. he was obstructing justice and he resigned before impeachment of richard nixon. >> it was a central element both of our case against the key aides to president nixon. because there was a sitting impeachment inquirinquiry, we dd to that and provided our evidence to the impeachment committee via the chief judge of the district court. remember richard nixon was named an unindicted coconspirator because of his involvement in the obstruction of justice experience. >> i want you to tell us what you know. when he said the president can't be charged because he is the top law enforcement official in the united states, go ahead and tell

us about john dowd. >> john is an experienced criminal defense lawyer. he's a tough guy. a former marine. he knows what he's doing, but i think he acknowledges that he made a mistake with respect to this twitter. >> do you believe it was he who wrote that tweet? >> he said he did. i take him at his word, yes. >> do you think he will be called in to testify and explain how that unfolded? >> i think that's what happens when you conplate being a defense lawyer and being a pr flack. they have two distinct roles. i think mr. secolo got in trouble. >> a private attorney as well. will he have to remove himself from the case if he is called to testify as a witness in this specific oligation of

obstruction of justice? >> i don't think so. the underlying facts are what they are. look, the president either knew or had to know that flynn was lying. he knew he was lying and had been interviewed by the fbi. whether or not he knew that lying to the fbi was a felony, who knows. the president has demonstrated a fair degree of ignorance when it comes to how government works, what the law is and so forth. >> in john dowd did write that tweet, it goes against what almost all criminal defense attorneys do. don't comment. there is a criminal investigation under way. don't tweet in this particular case. i assume that's what most attorneys would tell their clients. >> there is a big fish on my wall in the rec room. if he kept his mouth shut, he wouldn't be there.

>> interesting point. thank you very much for joining us. backlash erupts after president trump rips the fbi and the justice department. why isn't the current chief responded? the president fully endorses the accused child molester roy moore for united states senate. you will hear his reasons and how moore is responding. is the u.s. moving closer to military action with north korea. there is a new warning from a senator suggesting that american families should leave south korea. your body was made for better things than rheumatiod arthritis. before you and your rheumatologist move to another treatment, ask if xeljanz xr is right for you. xeljanz xr is a once-daily pill for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. it can reduce pain, swelling and further joint damage, even without methotrexate. xeljanz xr can lower your ability to fight infections,

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going on simultaneously. robert mueller's and one by the house intelligence committee. one newscast senate and the judiciary committee. a strategy is coming out in the mueller investigation into question. listen. >> you have two indictments and you have another two plea agreements. none directly related to collusion. the president said look, i wasn't involved, there was no collusion. people are saying even if there was, it's not a crime. at the end of the day, my view is robert mueller poses an existential threat to the trump presidency. he had four major convictions. two convictions and two plea agreements. lightning speed. >> the cnn analysts and chief political analyst gloria borger. the breaking news that the president's counsel told him that michael flynn misled the fbi.

the day or two following his testimony before the fbi. >> this raises -- it's important and raises a lot of questions about what the president knew when he asked comb tow stay back and then asked him to kind of ease up on general flynn. did he know what was going on and it raises questions about why it took so long for the white house to fire flynn. a few weeks. what was going on at that point if you have an indication that flynn, for example, wouldn't be able to get or keep his security clearance. >> as a national security -- >> national security adviser. that raises a lot of questions about what the president knew and questions about what was going on inside the white house at the top levels at that time. >> they knew what was going on, but it wasn't until after "the washington post" reported all that information publicly that

he was fired. >> that's right. exactly. the story was we fired him when we discovered that mike pence had been lied to by flynn. as we peel the pllayers of the onion, we are trying to figure out how much more they did know. >> sorry that obstruction of justice? >> we clearly know what he did. on february 14th, surprising valentine's tradition, he said to jim comey, the former director of the fbi can you let this one go and lay off and if he knew prior to that that michael flynn was involved in trying to undermine investigations by lying, it's a problem. it's not the focus to figure out whether or not he knew flynn was lying or not and whether he made wrong statements. if he knew there was an investigation and tried to stop the investigation, that is obstructive conduct. remember the end game for an investigator is not obstruction.

that's like giving someone a speeding ticket going from the speed of a crime. what should i not be looking at? that's the end game here. >> they're knew flynn lied to the vice president, mike pence. the reporting we are getting is the president told flynn misled the fbi. the word lied was not included. is there a difference between misleading the fbi and lying to the fbi under oath? >> only in a semantics-based universe. it's whether or not they made misleading or false statements. robert mueller's team will have the same focus. what are you saying that is not accurate and why? >> how do you see it? >> it matters given what we have heard from president trump's personal lawyer. he can't be indicted for obstruction of justice. the truth is he could be. we don't know with certainty

because of what the constitution has been silent on this. there are two avenues that laura is suggesting. it could go criminally if bob mueller wants to pursue that or to past presidential allegations of wrong-doing. go through impeachment. there is a charge of obstruction of justice brought to the house of representatives before impeachment proceedings of. for president clinton and president nixon. the is she that it takes a majority of the house to impeach and then two 30s of the senate to convict. even though that is the more logical place to go after a president if indeed mob mueller will be going after a president and this is speculative, but for a jury or a judge, it would be theoretically easier because it's not in political context. >> the thing to keep in mind is that don mcgahn is such an

important witness now in the whole proceeding. so is -- and the president's personal attorney, john dowd with his alleged involvement in the president's tweet is also now somebody that they may have to talk to. i think it is not as if sally yates went down there and who was the acting attorney general at the time. it's not like she said he's lying. this is something and we have been told this specifically. she did not characterize how she interpreted what flynn was doing. mcgahn drew his own conclusions as they should have and they were probably right. which was he had been lying to the fbi and the fbi had the intercepts. >> they are called to remove

themselves as the private attorney forever the president? >> they had a conflict of interest going on there. remember this would be another instance of a self inflicted wound in the d main station. a lot of what happened so far including the mueller probe, et cetera are based on self inflicted wounds. if you have the attorneys stepping into this and weighing in in a way that jeopardizes the client's ability to now be truthful or expose him to lab . liabilities. now you are in greater jeopardy. it wouldn't are priored. >> he separates himself. he is not the president's lawyer. he is the people's lawyer. he is the white house counsel. he insulated himself from the rest of this investigation. >> what are we know from the way bob mueller is proceeding in the prior four charges that came forward, he is using these statements after the fact against these individuals. he has been able to build a case

from the original offenses and the statements coming out. >> stand by. there is more coming up as the pressure builds on the president in the investigation. he lashes out at the fbi and the justice department. i will speak live with an agent who is getting ready to respond and accused of molesting a teenage girl and harassing other young women, but he just got the full endorsement of the president of the united states. republicans may be getting on board are roy moore. let's get the lady of the house back on her feet. and help her feel more strength and energy in just two weeks. yaaay! the complete balanced nutrition of ensure with 9 grams of protein and 26 vitamins and minerals. ensure. always be you.

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president trump is now taking a stand in the alabama senate race tweeting his full endorsement for the controversial republican candidate saying democrats refusal to give one vote for massive tax cuts is why we need republican roy moore to win in alabama. the president called moore on the phone. this is in stark contrast to what we heard from the first daughter, ivanka who said there is a special place in people who on children and she has no reason to doubt roy moore's accusers and one said she was 14 years old when moore touched her inappropriately. and he wouldn't go to alabama to com pain s. this what we should expect until the special election a week from tomorrow? >> i think we should definitely keep open the possibility that the president can go to alabama and campaign. the white house has not

announced that. he is scheduled to campaign or hold a rally in pensacola, florida on the panhandle on friday night. keep in mind that tv market bleeds into alabama. the president's comments when he speaks in pensacola, florida on friday, thes will air on alabama. the white house confirmed this phone call between president trump and roy moore this morning. they put out a statement saying the president had a positive call during which they discussed the senate race and the president endorsed judge moore's campaign. this is a turn around. that we probably saw coming. remember on november 21st, a couple of weeks ago the president was on the south lawn saying he believed roy moore's denials. it is somewhat of a reversal in that the white house had been saying up until this point if the allegations were proven true, they want roy moore to get

out of the race. this is far from that. they are a light year away from that statement at this stage. wolf, i think it's not really a big surprise that the president would take this position. it is interesting because he had been talking about needing votes in the senate for the tax package that is going to make its way through the congress. he doesn't need roy moore's vote to get tax cuts passed, but come next year he may need him in the senate. every republican vote he can get not only to pass portions of his agenda, but because people at the white house and republican allies are worried about the prospect of democrats taking control of one or both houses of congress because that changes committee assignments and opens up the possibility of all sorts of hearings into the russia matter and the white house doesn't want democrats in charge of that. >> they certainly don't.

let's bring back lori borger and david drucker. the president is fully endorsing roy moore with days to go until the election. >> he wants him to win and thinks he can win and wants him to win as jim was saying. he wants his vote come january for lots of things that might be on the line and wants to make sure they keep control of the senate. we know that both houses may be in peril right now. you even saw mitch mcconnell say you know, let the people of alabama decide. i think the president has talked to steve bannon about this quite a bit his former adviser. he just has decided that this is the side he's coming down on. he also said that you know, roy moore has denied all the changes against him. just like he said putin denied

hacking the election and the president denied all the changes against him. he chooses to believe him. >> i think the president was probably always going to come around to this position. we saw roy moore rebounding in the polls after the initial revelations about sexual misconduct and it mirrored in many respects what the president went through before the election after the "access hollywood" tape came out. i think it was problematic for the president and just from the perspective of i hhypocrisy to h somebody out of an election and a campaign listen that he is complaining about rigged elections and letting people decide. the president was accused of sexual misconduct by women on the record and he denies that anything ever happened. roy moore was accused of sexual misconduct by women on the record. he denies that anything ever happened. i never saw any sense that the president was going to be motivated to come out opposed to

roy moore. republicans in the senate are in a tough spot. if they don't say anything and keep good on expulsion threats, they are leaving themselves open to attacks in the mid-terms. if republicans do talk too much about pushing him out, voters are very angry at the republican establishment and don't like outsiders telling them what to do. >> mitch mcconnell is endorsing roy moore. his pals are saying be careful what you wish for with a republican in the senate, that could be problematic. there is another development we are getting word of. nancy pelosi and chuck schumer canceled a meeting with the president because of a nasty tweet that he levelled against them. they are all getting ready to meet at the white house this week. >> the chuck and nancy show returns to the white house. they want to avoid a government shut down. they have to try to decide what

they want to include in this. daca is on the table. the dreamers are on the table and there are a lot of important decisions that need to be made. there is no way to avoid meeting with the president. they need to tell him what they want and what they are willing to give and not willing to give. it's important for them to meet with the president. >> they're did leave open this idea that they could back out again. they said they hope the president approaches without preconditions and open to a broad deal where everything is on the table. we don't know in the next five minutes the president will tweet thanks for coming and by the way, no daca. i don't think the republicans have the votes to include a daca deal at the end of the year given the reaction to the chuck and nancy part one back in the fall. >> we will continue to watch this late breaking development as well. thank you. more on the breaking news. the president's lawyer claiming the president is immune to

obstruction of justice claims. the strategy behind this legal defense and the current head of the fbi is silent after the president attacks his agency. i will speak live with a former fbi agent. if your moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's symptoms are holding you back, and your current treatment hasn't worked well enough, it may be time for a change. ask your doctor about entyvio, the only biologic developed and approved just for uc and crohn's. entyvio works at the site of inflammation in the gi tract and is clinically proven to help many patients achieve both symptom relief and remission. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, serious, potentially fatal brain infection caused by a virus may be possible. this condition has not been reported with entyvio. tell your doctor if you have an infection, experience frequent infections or have flu-like symptoms or sores.

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>> president trump lashing out at the fbi and the former director james comey tweeting out this. after years of comey with the phony and dishonest clinton investigation, ruining his reputation is in tatters. worst in history. fear not. we will bring it back to greatness. james comey retweeted a quote. i want the american people to know this truth. the fbi is honest. the fbi is strong and the fbi is

and always will be independent. the former acting attorney general sally yates came to the agency's defense. the fbi is in tatters. the only thing in tatters is the president's respect for the rule of law and the educated men and women deserve better. they retweeted the suggestion that the current head of the agency christopher wray should clean house. alberto gonzalez said criticizing the president would be tricky. >> nothing preventing them from coming out and talking about the great work that the did the department and the fbi is doing. if the white house believes they should be doing things better than expressing dedication to doing a better job, i think directly contradicting the president, you can express support for the fbi without contradicting the president or taking them on directly.

>> let's discuss with mike rogers, the former head of the house intelligence and a former fbi special agent. the cnn national security commentator. should the current head of the fbi defend his agency. >> i hope he stays out of all of this. >> one of the things that got the fbi in trouble was tiptoeing into and out of politics. the agent's association came out strongly. these are the men and women who are serving and those who are retired who came up strong to defend the fbi. certainly all of the outside players are coming in to defend them. i certainly have been defending the fbi. i think that's the right way to do this. if he engages in this, i worry that the fbi itself will get dragged into this politics that is not good for the fbi or the country. >> is the fbi in tatters as the president alleged. >> no, no.

i wish the president would think about the bigger picture. the fbi agents are in all 50 states and around the world. protecting the united states from terrorism and espionage and criminal actors. the fbi's credibility, when they flip the credentials up and walk up to somebody's door, it has to mean something. it does today. the world respects the fbi like other law enforcement organization. when the president does that, it makes it harder. every lawyer in america has a grin on their face thinking i can go after the fbi in court by saying even the president of the united states doesn't think you are doing a good job. none of this is helpful. we should be supporting the difficult work they do in the fbi. >> i want to get to your thoughts on the breaking news we have been following. it's significant that the president was informed by the white house counsel don mcgahn that his adviser misled the fbi four days after the president

took office in that interview with the fbi as part of the investigation into russian interventi intervention. >> this is serious stuff. did that lead to him saying he has to go? we can't have that in the white house. i don't know. the more they tried to ob fiscate what happens and it seems like they are not being truthful. as an old fbi agent, if you look a little guilty, that's ready meat to a pack of dogs. they are going to try to get to the bottom of that. this president would be well served if he would stop tweeting and stop talking about it and stop degrading the organizations that he needs to help keep america safe. the more this happens, i always thought if they didn't talk about what was happening, it would be very difficult for this investigative team to prove obstruction of justice. we talked about it and it's ha

order to do as the president does his daily work. the more they interject uncertainty and confusion and conflicting statements, i think the more they are going to lead these investigators into a place where they may find a charge. >> good advice and surprising that his private attorney is saying i told him to tweet that controversial comment which is potentially trouble some for the president. is the u.s. moving closer to military action against north korea right now? a new warning from a u.s. senator suggesting that american families should leave south korea.

tensions escalating with north korea. u.s. fighter jets could be seen this morning flying over south korea for combat exercises. the senior south korean air force official says the exercise is practicing a mock attack against a north korea site. now lindsay graham fears the u.s. is running out of time and he wants american families to start leaving south korea. >> i'm going to urge the pentagon not to send any more dependents to south korea. south korea should be an unaccompanied tour. it's crazy to send spouses and children to south korea given the provocation of north korea. so i want them to stop sending dependents, and i think it's now time to start moving american dependents out of south korea. >> mike rogers is with us, our national security commentator. do you agree with lindsay graham? >> think it is rising to the point where families should take

that consideration. there aren't a lot of options left. the government has talked about decapitation and taking out kim jong-un and we had a s.e.a.l. team training and we have a battalion designing in training to take out kim jong-un and then they go to the next one, can you do limited strikes and get all of the sites? that has problems and then there is a full-on invasion and south korea said they would be ready for that and the last one is this mix of military pressure with diplomacy. can you convince kim jong-un, that he needs to come to the negotiating table? and i'm not sure i've seen anything yet that would allow them to say that, including, by the way, that the opposition party in korea just within the last couple of months came to washington, d.c. and said maybe it's time to put tactical nukes back on the peninsula. they've been very public about that. that tells you how far down the road that they believe we are in running out of options and running out of time to deal with

it. >> still 30,000 u.s. troops in south korea. another couple hundred thousand american citizens in seoul, but there are millions, maybe 20 million people in seoul and only 30 miles away from the dnc in harm's way, so this is a potential crisis out there. >> ratcheting up. >> getting worse. mike rogers, thanks very much. showing you some live pictures of president trump getting ready to speak live in utah as he faces accusations that he obstructed justice. stand by. we'll hear from the president and a lot more right after this. alright, i brought in high protein to help get us moving. ...and help you feel more strength and energy in just two weeks! i'll take that. -yeeeeeah! ensure high protein. with 16 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. ensure. always be you. that goes beyond assuming beingredients are safe...ood to knowing they are. going beyond expectations... because our pets deserve it.

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this is cnn breaking news. hi there, i'm brianna keilar in for brooke bolduan today. breaking news providing an even clearer picture of what president trump knew when he fired his national security ad