talk to your doctor about xarelto®. this is cnn breaking news. >> hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington, where we are watching from around the world. thank you very much for joining us. we start with breaking news. a major shakeup of the president's legal team, just as a showdown looms between the white house and the special counsel robert mueller. a white house official now telling cnn that the attorney ty cobb is leaving. he becomes the second major member of the president's legal team to leave in the past month and a half. john dowd quit in late march.

the departure comes as we hear robert mueller may resort to a subpoena to get the president to sit down for a special investigation. the president tweeting this -- >> he also just took a shot at the justice department saying, and i'm quoting, once again, this is the president, at some point, i will have no choice but to use the powers granted to the presidency, and get involved. let's go to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta. talk about the president's legal issues right now. who is taking over for ty cobb? this is another major legal shakeup on the president's team. >> reporter: that's right, wolf. ty cobb, the president's inside attorney you could say over here at the white house, not one of his outside lawyers, but has been at his side for several months is stepping down. just last month, the president preferred to ty cobb as his special counsel in a tweet

defending his own white house team. but confirming in a statement to reporters just in the last several minutes that ty cobb is stepping down. we can read that statement to you. it says, for several weeks ty cobb has been discussing his retirement and last week he let chief of staff john kelly know he would retire at the end of the month. interesting to note, wolf, some of the i guess time stamps in that statement saying that this was notified to john kelly last week, that may be an indication that the white house would like to tamp down any speculation, because it's going to happen, we're going to be asking the question at the upcoming %-pn has anything to do with this tension that's been ratcheting up between the special counsel's office and the white house over the last few days after it was reported in "the new york times." there are some four dozen questions that president trump's outside legal team and his inside legal team are preparing for in the event that the president sits down with special

counsel robert mueller. most interestingly, the tweet that was posted by the president this morning that suggested he may want to take some dramatic action to shut down the mueller investigation or to somehow opt not to sit down for that interview, the president's tweet here, a rigged system, they don't want to turn over documents to congress. what are they afraid of? why so much redacting? the president referring to the house demands that they want to see some memos of what the special counsel is looking into. but the very end of that tweet says at some pointly have no choice but to use the powers granted to the presidency and get involved. that suggests that the president is thinking heavily about either shutting down the mueller investigation or perhaps getting rid of rod rosenstein or perhaps deciding not to sit down with the special counsel. it does sound as if, if you go by that tweet, the president is

puffing out his chest and this is some preheavyweight bout posturing that goes on between two fighters here, or the president is thinking about doing something dramatic and doing something to that mueller investigation that obviously the justice department is not going to like. what that has to do with ty cobb and his departure remains to be seen. we have not heard a statement from ty cobb up until this point explaining why he's stepping aside. but the white house trying to make it very clear in that statement that this has been under discussion for some time and he notified the chief of staff last week, wolf. >> another major shakeup in that legal staff. jim acosta, once you get more we'll get back to you. i want to bring in our cnn analysts right now. gloria, what do you think? another big shakeup. >> it is. it is not unexpected. ty cobb was appointed to get all the documents together, to make

sure all the interviews occurred for the special counsel. that was all done. the document production was done. he has told people that he wanted to stay on, if there was going to be an interview with the president, with the special counsel, because he wanted to be part of that interview prep, obviously. he has been the odd man out on all of this. he's been saying, oh, you know, the president, let's not rule out that the president should sit down with the special counsel. the team now says no, as we reported last night that the president's legal team, and it seems increasingly the president himself, is ready for a showdown now that could go all the way to the supreme court. that leaves ty cobb as the odd man out. so it is not surprising that he would be leaving at that point, and also being replaced by somebody, emmet flood, who has a

great deal of experience in the issues of impeachment and executive privilege. and so, you know, i think cobb will say that it was time for him to go. and i think people in the white house will agree that at this point, you know, it was over for him, that he disagreed with the strategy, and i think that's always a good time to say your goodbyes. soz what i'm hearing from you, gloria, you think ty cobb wanted the president to sit down with an interview with robert mueller and his team, but increasingly the president said he wants to do it, ready to do it, now increasingly it looks unlikely he will. >> after the cohen raid, the president went from yes, i want to sit down to no, i don't want to sit down. that was kind of the moment. now you brought in new attorneys. he always clashed with john dowd on this, who is now also gone. so yeah, i think ty cobb was holding out, and look, it could still happen.

anything can happen. but i do believe that he thought this was the right moment to believe, and they probably agreed with him. >> it's such a sensitive moment, april, right now. these legal teams have been working on this for so long and it looks like robert mueller is getting to the point he wants to sit down with the president, and for these lawyers, whether john dowd, ty cobb to suddenly at the sensitive moment like this, quit, that's a big deal. >> it's a huge deal. ty cobb understood the rule of law, he understands the rule of law. what happens is, if you do not sit down with the special counsel, what's next? what is next? subpoenas that could lead to an indictment or it could lead to what else? what we saw with bill clinton. we could see an impeachment proceeding. we could see something happen that would cause the republicans to say, they have no choice but to push an impeachment proceeding. this is a very sensitive moment. you had rudy giuliani, who was trying to work out this deal

with mueller and you had ty cobb and the rest were saying they were going along with the president with his emotions and feelings. you have emotions and feelings versus the rule of law. it seems the emotions and feelings might lead us down that road. if he tries to push mueller out and shut down the investigation, it could lead to impeachment. this is a moment we have to gaze and watch. >> less than a month ago on march 11th, david, the president tweeted this, this is the president's official statement, "the failing "new york times" purposefully wrote a false story stating i'm unhappy with my russia team. wrong. i'm very happy with my lawyers, john dowd, ty cobb, jay sekulow. they are going a great job." john dowd is now out, ty cobb is out, jay sekulow is there. they added another lawyer, i

believe his name is rudy giuliani. so clearly what the president tweeted in this official white house statement a month ago was inaccurate. >> that's right. it wouldn't be the first time. i think he was deflecting there at that moment. and obviously this has been shifting sand for him. i think the challenge for the president is he has legal exposure and he has political exposure. and because he's facing both a legal process and a political process at the same time. so, you know, he's notoriously a horrible client, which is not a surprise, because he doesn't listen, he doesn't pay. and most top flight lawyers in this town aren't going to put up with that. in this case, he's got somebody in emmet flood. he's done executive privilege work for former president bush after he was out of the office. he has that experience and the impeachment experience. so all of those things would be relevant. i think president trump right now is really fixated on this question of, too cooperate with

mueller or to not cooperate. it's a little bit like the o.j. simpson case. i say that because of alan der sh -- durwizz is always out there. >> the president took a swipe at his justice department. his attorney general, who is a republican, jeff sessions, the deputy attorney general rod rosenstein, who is a republican. the fbi director, the new one, christopher wray, who is a republican. robert mueller, the special counsel, a republican. this is what the president tweeted. a rigged system, they don't want to turn over documents to congress. what are they afraid of? why so much redacting? why so much unequal justice? at some point i will have no choice but to use the powering granted to the presidency and get involved.

that sounds like a threat to his justice department. >> you heard what rod rosenstein said yesterday on the documented fight that he's having with congress, which is that the justice department was not going to be extorted, the word that he used. so you have that fight going on. and it's not easy for any attorney who represents a client who is fighting with his own justice department constantly. and i know that that was something that rankled quite frankly ty cobb, who had a good relationship with the president, but it eroded because ty cobb and john dowd kept saying to the president, don't worry, mr. president, this is going to be over in november. this is going to be over in december. this is going to be over in january. and then it wasn't. and then the president got more and more upset. i'm sure ty cobb took a lot of that. but these attorneys don't like to see these tweets, and they try to bar the door for a very

long time. and finally they couldn't do it anymore, and they couldn't control the president from tweeting against his own justice department. >> the president intervening in the justice department and the fbi, there is -- there is an appropriate amount of independence that these agencies have from the president. >> and have had. >> you go back to president clinton, who was impeached, who named louie freeh as his fbi director, who he had issues with. >> and he didn't get along with janet reno. >> so that part is not unprecedented. but for the president to be threatening to take action is really dangerous. >> the constitutional crisis is on the table. this threat could be his reality. this president seems to not be able to help himself. he has knee jerk reactions to

feelings, instead of honoring the traditions that there's a separation between justice and the executive, and the white house. and this president, if he does try to change, fire, or impeach rosenstein or do something to sessions or mueller, there's a constitutional crisis here. republicans, his own party -- >> one question, gloria. you do a lot of good reporting on this. the difference between that tweet march 11 when the president said he loves his legal team, the failing "new york times" doesn't know what it was talking about, but the big difference between then and now, rudy giuliani has been brought into all of this. how does he play with these other lawyers? >> so it is interesting. we know that rudy giuliani has been in a meeting with mueller to kind of feel out what's going on. we know he is a part of the legal team, and that has been controversial. not every lawyer wanted him in.

the raskins, the husband and wife legal team everybody agrees were terrific. i was told by one source that the president wanted rudy there because he wanted star power on his team, as he was casting his team. the raskins are good lawyers, but they're not famous. they're not household names. by question with emmett flood is, what role will he have? ty cobb's role was inside the white house, special counsel to the president. he was not in on the negotiations with r0b89 muobert mueller. that was not his job. the question i have is, is emmet flood coming in to be on the legal team or is he coming in, in a different role in the white house? could he be an eventual replacement with don mcgahn? they do not get along and haven't spoken to each other i'm told in quite some time. so what would emmet flood's job

really be? >> impeachment, there's a key with flood there, clinton impeachment that. overrides anything for flood. >> everybody, hold their thoughts. a lot more we need to cover. we're getting more breaking news, including robert mueller raising the possibility of a subpoena for the president of the united states. new developments on that front. and critics calling it fraud after the president's long-time doctor says then candidate donald trump dictated the glowing statement about his health and stamina. we'll discuss that, as well. how many lives does the epa director scott pruitt have?

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president bill clinton, will take his play. i want to bring in someone who was familiar with bill clinton's legal team, jack quinn. thank you for joining us. what can you tell us about this lawyer, emmet flood, who is being brought in to the white house? >> emmet flood has an impressive legal pedigree. he's a partier with williams and conley, which has been involved in imnumerable cases relevant here. he worked for president clinton in the impeachment proceedings and he worked for vice president cheney, so he works for republicans as well as democrats. he knows what he's doing. he knows his way around. i think he will be a good addition to this team. >> you were with the white house counsel for bill clinton. when you say he worked for bill clinton's impeachment team, what was his job? >> he worked with david kendall, his partner at williams and

connelly, the trial team, in the impeachment proceedings. >> in the senate after he was impeached, the trial in the senate? >> that's right, the trial in the senate. what's unclear right now is why he's being brought in, and that is to say what role he's going to perform. if he's coming in to work in the white house counsel's office, then he is a lawyer for the office of the president, as distinct from a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity. those are two very different things. you know, it remains to be seen what his role will be, and how he will relate to others. is rudy giuliani still part of the picture? is he leaving the team? is emmet flood leading the team? these are important decisions in terms of how this is going to unfold. does the president want to negotiate the terms of an appearance before the special counsel or a grand jury?

does he want to fight, go to court, resist that? or might he just ignore this? >> what do you think of the decision as now has been widely reported by robert mueller to threaten the president with a subpoena if he doesn't voluntarily sit down for an interview? >> i've been saying for a long time, that was completely predictable. if the president thinks he's above the law and doesn't have to provide the evidence that the special counsel wants, he's wrong. and i believe that -- i'm quite certain that if he litigates it, he will lose in court and he will have to provide evidence in some form or fashion. >> remind us what happened with bill clinton, because we all remember when he was questioned by the grand jury during the whole monica lewinsky uproar. >> in the case of ken starr's proceeding -- >> he was the independent counsel. >> that's correct, he was the independent counsel investigating white water which led to the lewinsky

investigation and so on. ken starr said he was going to subpoena the president. the president headed that off by voluntarily providing testimony. in a separate proceeding, in the paula jones civil litigation, the president actually did receive a subpoena and testified. before a grand jury. he gave video testimony from the white house. the grand jury was somewhere else. but he was compelled to testify. again, i think that is an important precedent here. the president, president trump needs to understand that he cannot simply resist. he cannot simply say no. i don't think yet some of the people on his legal team yet appreciate that the judicial branch is going to ensure that he not posture himself as being above the law. >> well, one argument that i've heard from some lawyers, i don't

know if the president is going to do this, it's probably remote, is he could plead the fifth and not answer questions. >> i think the likelihood of that is almost nil. i mean, let's remember that this president said people who plead the fifth are guilty. that the optics of it, as a matter of public opinion, i think would be terrible for the president. so i don't expect that to happen. but i do think that they're bracing for a showdown. i think they're itching for a fight. but at the end of the day, i think the president -- and i think frankly a lawyer like emmet flood is not going to let the president adopt a scorched earth approach to all of this. >> very quickly, his threat at the justice department today in this tweet this morning, what did you think about that? >> i think it's terrible. look, the president, in doing things like that, is essentially saying, i'm going to take the prosecutors off the field.

i may fire rosenstein, i may fire mueller. and he's holding out the prospect of eliminating witnesses by granting them pardons. think about that. if you eliminate the prosecutors and you eliminate the witnesses, you eliminate the case, there's no way that the american system of justice will tolerate that. >> jack quinn, thank you for joining us. as he blasted hillary clinton over her health, the president's long-time doctor released a glowing letter about donald trump's extraordinary health, but it turns out, we are learning right now that the doctor says trump dictated that letter. so is it a fraud? there's lots to discuss and assess. we'll be right back.

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presidential campaign that claimed donald trump would be the healthiest president in history if elected. it also gushed about his extraordinary stamina. now president trump's doctor tells cnn that while he signed that glowing letter, he didn't actually write it. he says it was dictated to him by then candidate donald trump himself. let's discuss with cnn politics reporter editor at large chris salizza. explain why this revelation is so deeply concerning. >> wolf, thank you. on its face, that letter that came out in december of 2015 was a little bit ridiculous. it said that donald trump would be the healthiest person ever to be elected president. it seemed odd, but his doctor stood by it, said yes i said it, donald trump has great genes and is very healthy. we now learn, he's not happy

having his files seized from him. he's made some comment ns about how he felt about having those documents taken from him. and he admitted that donald trump told me what to say in that quote. why is it important? because donald trump used that one statement as evidence that he was healthy, that he was ready to be president. and let's remember, wolf, this is someone who is the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president, 71 years old. this is someone who has been dismissive of exercise and diet throughout his life. but that statement was used in many ways as evidence that, well, even though he has not lived, exercised, diet, that kind of life, that a doctor might recommend, he's fine. turns out that's not the case. i'll remind you of one other thing. remember that donald trump was attacking hillary clinton relentlessly for her endurance, his words, and stamina. he repeatedly talked about that during the campaign, especially

after that moment in new york city when she wobbled a bit getting back into her car, that the after effects of her campaign said of pneumonia. donald trump said something was going on there, she didn't have the endurance or stamina to be president of the united states. it turns out the doctor who was telling us donald trump had the endurance and stamina, was named donald john trump. it speaks to a broader thing, which is he is willing to say and do anything to win. the way he gets there justifies whatever is the end result. that is concerning. i'm not sure that it is anything particularly new. but that he's willing to do something like this, dictate a statement to his personal physician, say it was from his personal physician, that says he's the healthiest person who would ever be elected president to have united states, has to raise eyebrows and shouldn't just elicit a chuckle. there's more serious stuff at work here that we should pay attention to.

>> chris, thank you very much. this medical drama involving the president may sound comical, but it also raises some very serious questions. and it comes even as some republicans are now starting to call the president out over his try of false statements. listen to this. this is the former republican u.s. senator from pennsylvania rick santorum. >> the president says things that don't comport with the facts. what is does that mean? >> i don't like calling people liars, but the reality is, this president has a problem. i've said that over and over again. i wish he wouldn't go out and say things that don't comport with the facts. >> let's bring back david gregory and april ryan for their insight. some republicans, especially republicans, david, who are not seeking re-election, they are speaking out. but a whole bunch of others aren't speaking out, referencing

the president's misstatementing. >> the president has to be held accountable for lying, he just does. all presidents lie, but he seems to do it far more routinely. and i think, you know, even supporters of the president who may not like kritd schicriticis if they're going to hold us accountable, they ought to hold us accountable as well for lies that speak to real insecurity, you know, that raise such credibility questions. and that are easily exploitable. you know, when we talk about the influence of the russians, you know, these are tactics that the russians have used, that putin has used to discredit factual reporting within russia. we see the president doing things like this in the course of a campaign. it becomes not just as chris says, something you say oh, well, i'm not surprised by that. we can't become numb to it. it's such a credibility issue. >> i'm anxious to get your

thoughts on now this doctor in new york, the president's personal physician for 35 years, says that glowing report that he released during the campaign, the president dictated those words to him. >> it's sad. you want to trust your president. but it goes to several issues. one, this is not about prescriptions for male pattern baldness. this is about fitness for the office, the presidency of the united states. this is not about cholesterol, but yet it is. it's about his fitness. what is there to hide? it also makes you wonder when dr. ronny jackson was at that podium for that elongated period of time, you wonder what part did the president play in that? i've never seen a white house doctor -- and we've been on presidential trips and had several white house doctors, we would normally get a piece of paper that says this and this. and for him to talk about how

physically fit this president is, that struck me as odd. it makes you wonder if ronny jackson was put up by the president to say that, as well. but this, in all of this, even though the president may have dictated these words, it is about his fitness for the office. mentally, physically, what have you. and what is he trying to hide if he had to dictate this in >> do you want to add anything on that? >> it's one thing in the course of a campaign to lie about something that just makes you look so small. now he's run up against something in this russia investigation where he's not going to be able to lie and get away with it when you're dealing with a special prosecutor and very skillful folks at exposing those lies. so his whole way of doing things, and it just undermines more serious work that the president is up to, and that the administration is up to, and his inability to get out of his own way. >> we'll see what happens. very quickly, marco rubio, the

republican senator from florida, he now is suggesting, david, that the low rating of the corporate tax rate, which was in the republican legislation, he says he doesn't see a whole lot of evidence that it's going to wind up helping average american workers. >> well, this is the tough shot across the bow. at the moment, this is the kind of argument that republicans want to make on a campaign trail in these midterm elections. let's talk about the economy and the impact of tax reform, of the conservative cause being advanced by this president and by a republican congress. if there's not a lot of evidence of it, people are going to feel like they got left behind and it makes their case harder. >> tom price, who was the secretary of health and human services, who was fired as we know, he says the repeal of the obamacare individual mandate is going to result in higher premiums for a whole bunch of people. >> we've been hearing that for a long time. that is nothing new.

once it happens and kicks in, this president will be held accountable. it's not going to be about obama, it will be about this president. going back to something david just said about that piece, david was right, but i can't wait to hear what the president will tweet -- start tweeting or saying. he will start calling marco rubio little marco again, i'm sure. >> what tom price was saying, is denying that it would have that impact if they roll eed back th individual mandate. obamacare cannot work if young people do not come in to balance out the older and sicker people using it. premiums are going up, they have to charge more because costs are going up with so many more people in the system. >> and the subsidies are leaving to help people get into the pool. >> a lot of people who don't want to buy insurance, they no longer have to buy health insurance, if they get sick, god forbid they go to an emergency room, you know who is going to

pay for their treatment. >> in talking to some of the pharmaceutical people, they feel like they're at a breaking point. ultimately the government is going to be involved in regulation or in paying more. and that's going to affect everybody, as well. >> good discussion. thank you very much. new troubles that are surfacing for the embattled epa chief scott pruitt, including more ethics concerns. and breaking news. a military plane has crashed outside of savannah, georgia. stand by, we have new information just coming in. i kf i'm getting a good deal? i tell truecar my zip and which car i want and truecar shows the range of prices people in my area actually paid for the same car so i know if i'm getting a great price. this is how car buying was always meant to be. this is truecar.

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we're just getting in courtesy of "the washington post." i want to quickly get your reaction. "the washington post" reporter robert costa just tweeted this news, rudy giuliani, the president's attorney, minutes after the ty cobb exit goes on the record with "the washington post," this is quoting rudy giuliani, "some people have talked about a possible 12-hour interview. if it happens, that's not going to happen, i'll tell you what. it would be max two to three hours, around a narrow set of questions." they haven't posted the full interview yet, but what is your reaction when rudy giuliani, the president's now lawyer, says if he does sit down with mueller, and there's no guarantee he will, it would be a maximum of two to three hours? >> i don't think rudy giuliani remembers that the justice department makes the decisions in determining how long an interview will be, and whether or not the issue of a subpoena, and a subpoena is under the

power of the law of the united states of america, and everybody, even donald trump, has to reply to that subpoena and go through the process. >> what if the president declines and says you know what? i'm not going to do it, what happens then? >> i think that if he declines a subpoe subpoena, it's in court and the court also order him to participate and give his responses to the questions that he's asked. no one is above the law in our country, not donald trump, not -- >> what if he pleads the fifth? >> i think if he pleads the fifth, he can forget a second term and forget the house and the senate in the 2018 elections. as he said, in his opinion, and it would be the ad that would run, a person who pleads the fifth is guilty. if the president of united states pled the fifth, it would be shocking and something unique in american history. jim comey said it reminded him of a mafia family. the mafia is most known to plead

the fifth and they did it before the mccarthy hearings. donald trump's mentor and guru, there's a great story in the "new york" magazine about how awful roy cohen was and the abuses he taught donald trump how to be abusive, how to lie, how to stone wall, and he's done it to an unbelieve about extent to where he became president of the united states. michael bloomberg said he's a con man. i'm from new york and i know a con man when i see one. >> the president is really going after the justice department in the face of some of your republican colleagues in the house of representatives demandsing more information from the justice department. he tweeted this earlier today, a rigged system, they don't want to turn over documents to congress. what are they afraid of? why so much redacting? why such unequal justice. at some point, i have no choice but to use the powers granted to the presidency and get involved.

that sounds like a threat. how do you react to that? >> well, it's threat. it's typical donald trump is to threaten, to boast, to brag, to make outrageous statements. he talked about north korea being blown off the face of the earth and nothing happened. he's made threats to so many people, and he doesn't follow up, which is fortunate. he doesn't -- this is reality television to him. and as far as the people on the house committee that are trying to quote unquote impeach rosenstein, they are acting as nunes was, not as congressman, not honoring article i that says all power first is in the legislative branch representing the people. they are acting like they work for donald trump and they are giving up their oath of being a congress person who represents the people and puts a check and balance on a president. this is the most unlawful, embarrassing administration in the history of our country, and those that support it and are

complicit in its existence will go down in flames at the poles in november of 2018. >> let me get to some new reporting that we are just getting in from jim acosta. he's saying that ty cobb, the president's lawyer in the white house, was "uncomfortable with the mueller tweets," referring to the president's tweets about mueller and the investigation, witch hunt, hoax, all those kinds of words that the president used. and that ty cobb didn't want to be part of all the mud slinging in the campaign that's going on. what is your reaction to that? >> nobody can stay around donald trump long who has a conscience and who has character and believes in ethics. i think that's probably why dowd left, why ty cobb left, and why mr. flood's time is limited. i would expect mr. flood should consult with secretary pruitt and find a short-term rental. i don't think he should close

his office up, because he won't be in the white house long either. this man is an uncaring, unethical individual who will bully anybody and takes borders and moves them down the field. and anybody with character or conscience cannot stay attached to him, and if they do for long, they will be sullied and end up like dr. ronny jackson with a questionable period in their life when they had none up to that point. >> congressman, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me, wolf. coming up, a rather scary situation on another southwest airlines flight. another window cracking, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing. stand by for details. i am totally blind. and non-24 can throw my days and nights out of sync,

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there's some breaking news coming out of savannah, georgia right now where a u.s. military plane has crashed. take a look at this. you can see the smoke coming from the crash site. the u.s. air force says the plan is a wc-130, which is used for weather reconnaissance flights. the flight came from the 156th air wing in puerto rico. normally the plane carries a crew of five people. a witness says he heard a very strange noise around 10 to 15 seconds before the plane crashed. we're going to bring you much more on this breaking story as we get more information. stand by for that. >> another story we're following, also pretty disturbing, a cracked window forces a southwest airlines plane to make an unscheduled landing. passenger linda holly texted a picture of the broken window to her son.

you can see that window right there. the flight from chicago to newark, new jersey was diverted to cleveland. the faa is investigating what caused this window to crack. and remember, the incident comes less than three weeks after an engine on a southwest plane failed, broke a window and a woman died after she was partially sucked out of the aircraft through that window. we're going to have much more on this story coming up in the course of the day as well. meanwhile, there's more developmentser mer emerging on g changes in the president's legal team and the president's threat to interfere in the u.s. justice department. much more on all of these breaking stories coming up. we'll be right back. has this unique combination of probiotics. it helps replenish good bacteria.

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this is cnn breaking news. hi, everyone. i'm brooke baldwin. you're watching cnn on this wednesday afternoon. multiple and fast-moving headlines breaking this hour on the russia probe. robert mueller is threatening to subpoena the president of the united states, and trump is threatening to interfere with the justice department. we'll get to all of that in just a moment here. but first, in the thick of all of this, administration officials are now telling cnn that the white house lawyer leading the president's team in the russia investigation is leaving. ty cobb is out. and just in a source indicates that cobb had been clashing with the president over his combative tweets against bob mueller. the source also says that cobb made it clear on multiple occasions that he could not go down that path. this is all according to our chief white house correspondent jim acosta, who we'll talk to in just a second. according to other reports,