>> narrator: tonight on frontline... >> it appears mueller has convinced yet another witness to cooperate... >> the russia investigation heating up on several fronts... >> narrator: a white house at war. >> but i say, how do you impeach somebody that hasn't done anythi wrong? >> narrator: ...with itself...tu >> thenning op-ed headlined "i am part of the resistance"... >> claiming to be a senior official in the trump white... >> narrator: and the justice department.y >> deputattorney general rod rosenstein talked about possibly invoking the 25th amendment... >> rosenstein has disputed and denied that report... >> if democrats take control of the house, they are going to be a subpoena generatinine. >> this white house is going to find itself playing permanene fense. >> trump has been waging a deliberate war on the whole idea

that there is such a thing as independent justice. >> ...all we hear abt is this phony russia witch hunt, that's all we hear about... >> president tmp is escalating his assault on the investigators who are investigating him... >> he's attacking the very nature of the department of justice. >> the fbi, it is a disgrace! >> narrator: from frontline'n's award-wig political team. >> tru viewed the entire intelligence community and the fbi as enemies. >> narrator: a two-hour specialg inveation. >> and the team muellehas assembled may be the a team ofr prosecutors an entire generation. >> you should be afraid, you shld be very afraid. >> narrator: inside thel. tu. >> president trump, the "cloud" as he calls it, hangs over his entire presidency. that he doesn't really understand where it's going or what's comi next. i a's coming for him. >> nrator: the politics... >> no collusion! no nothing. >> this president may feelto empowered ove to either fire bob mueller, or fire jeff sessions or fire rod rosenstein,

or find some way to shut this investigation down. >> narrator: and the showdown with the 45th president... >> the way that the president can be removed if that's the goal is through impeachment and conviction by the senate or through elections anat's why it's the american people who are going to decide trump's fate. >> ...fireworks on capitol hill... >> ...firestorm hovering over the white house... >> ... this is a white house that is under siege... >> the stakes could not higher... >> narrator: tonight, "trump's showdown". n ...news that michael co may be a headline.... >> ...extraordinary moment in american history... >> frontline is madeble by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting.pp major t is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, ted to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the frontli s of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional supports provided

by the abrams foundation, commted to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the wyncote foundation. and by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. and additional support from william d helen pounds. >> now to today's showdown at toump tower between the president-elect an intelligence... >> president-elect trump is about toet all of the details from u.s. intelligence... >> intelligence officials are expected to meet face-to-face with president-elect trump at trump tower... >> narrator: two weeks before the inauguration... >> ...what could be a day of fireworks. >> narrator: ...the battle lines between the new president and washington's establishment were about to be drawn. >> i was very concerned that mr. trump was ill-prepared for the

job, that he didn't have a good grasp of international affairs, the legislative process, u.s.el law, igence capabilities. >> a highly classifiort into russia's hacking of u.s. political institutions... >> narrator: on the street far below, four of the most powerful men in the united states government arrived. >> i think there was a great deal of apprehension. you had the intelligence chiefs going in, knowing that their audience is skeptical ofhat they're about to say. >> narrator: they were senior leaders of aroup known as the i.c.-- the intelligence community. james clapper, the director of national intelligence. admiral mike rogers was in charge of the nsa. jim comey was the director of the fbi. and john brennan ran the c.i.a.

they had come to tell donald trump at his election may have been compromised brussian interference. nd this was the most aggressive, and most direct,ost assertive campaign that the russians ever mounted in the history of our elections to interfere and, and to somehow influence the outcome. >> narrator: behind closed doors, the i.c. brieng began. >> it was several hours long. there was equivocation in our language. and we were very direct, and very, very clear in terms of what it is that we knew and assessed >> there was no pushback. and i think the reason was that the, the evidence that we id out at the highly classified level was pretty, pretty compelling. it had been very hard ru have pushback. >> narrator: t didn't argue, but he later said he saw the

talk of russian interference ast an assn the legitimacy of his victory. e, >> it's a challeot just to his legitimacy as president, but as his overall powerhis overall, sort of, sense of his worth in terms of being there. >> narrator: the i.c. chiefs had one more piece of news f the president-elect. brennan, clapper, and rogers left the room. james comey stayed behto deliver it. >> comey pulls the psident aside, and he tells him, "hey, listen, i need you to know that there's this--" what we now call the dossier. >> narrator: the dossier-- a set of memos prepared by ari formersh spy-- partially paid for by the democrats. it was political dynamite. >> "russian regime has been cultivating, supporting and assisting trump for at least five years >> it's full of things that may be able to allow the russians to blackml him.

it has information about him involved iperverted sexual acts. >> "to exploit trump'snal obsessions and sexual perversion in order to obtain suitable 'kompromat' (compromisingal mateon him." >> narrator: the salacious and unverified allegations involved trump and a number of russian prostitutes in a moscow hotel suite. >> whoa, not great. not a great start to this relationship. and comey worries about that. >> narrator: in fact, comey had been warned to be careful not to appear to threaten trump. n i called jim, i got him the phone. i said, "jim, have you ever met donald trump before?" and a little to my surprise, he sa, "no, i have not." and i said, "jim, you're ia very awkward spot here." i said, "jim, there's a fine distinction between 'just ylling you this so you know,' versus 'just telli this so you know, and don't (bleep) with me.'"

>> we're going to run a country... j t think about it in human terms. you'd be cautious if you were the new president, about that, wouldn't you? somebody comes to you information that, you know, "i need to tell you this." on the one hand, you might ceive that as a, "oh, that's a nice heads-up." on the other hand, you might so receive it implicitly, i'm sure as it was intended, as a threat. >> narrator: as the two men sized each other up, the stakes could not have been higher. >> it was a critical ment. it was the most important moment that would shape trump's presidency.'t >> and i don know that jim comey necessarily went to that meeting thinking, "oh, my job is on the line." if he didn't, he should have. >> narrator: comey handed trump a summary of the dossier. >> and trump denies itan immediatelvociferously. says, "do i look like the kind of guy who needs to hire prostitutes?" >> narrator: comey said he was giving trump informatione

needed to know. >> and the point was, in briefing him aboutt, was, was to inform him of its existence. we felt a duty to warn, if you will, just so that he knew that it was out there. >> narrator: but trump was already distrustful of an fbi director w served under president obama. immediately after the meeting, mey typed this memo from the back seat of his s.u.v. " >>he then started talking about all the women who had falsely accused him of grabbing or touching em-- with particular mention of a 'stripper' who said he grabbed her-and gave me the sense th he was defending himself to me." i >> idn't surprise me at all that after having this meeting with the president-elect, that he immediately memorialized it so he had it as a record if he ever need it. >> narrator: in the aftermath of the meeting, bacup in trump tower, the president-elect was furious. >> trump is talking to his tope aides, andews this as

blackmail. it's a shakedown, he tells them. his assumpon is that comey isgi ng this to him to show him that he's got something on him. >> we're talking about politically appointed individuals using intelligence potentially as a weapon against people who they politically disagree with. r>> whenever an fbi direc approaches a president-elect with something that was "salacious and unverified," in comey's words, and tells him about it, i think mr. trumpre ized it was a shakedown. he's been in a tough business in new york and he knows a shakedown when he sees it. >> this is cnn breaking news. >> cnn has learned that the nation's t intelligence officials provided information to president-elect donald trump. >> narrator: trump fead the story would leak. and soon it did, on cable news. >> russian operatives claimed to have compromising personal and

financial infoation about mr. trump. >> there's the controversial move by buzzfeed last night, publishing a dossier... narrator: before long, the entire dossier was on the web. >> but they ha been detailed by numerous media outlets including buzzfeed, the "new york times," and cnn. >> nmprator: the next day, tru went before the cameras to fight back. >> i'd seen trump a loon the campaign trail. but i have to say, i was surprised that he came out so vituperatively and so angrily. >> i think it was disgracel, disgraceful, that the intelligence agencies allowed any information that turned out to be so false and fake, out. >> he expressed his frustration. he knows it's a set-up, he knows it's a plot to destroy him, and people around him. >> and that's something that nazi germany would have done and did do.it i thin a disgrace. >> something the gestapo would have done, trump says. >> that information that was false and fake and never happened got released to theic

pu >> i mean, he now viewed the entire intelligence community and the fbi as... as enemies. >> can you give us a question? >> go ahead. >> narrar: it was also a declaration of war on the press. >> can you give us a chance?ga >> your zation is terrible. >> you are attacking our news organization. >> yr organization is terrible. >> can you give us a chance to ask a question, sir? >> go ahead. quiet, quiet. go ahead, she's asking a qution, don't be rude. >> mr. president-elect, can you give us a question? >> don't be rude. >> can you give us a question? >> don't be rude. no, i'm not going to give you a question, i'm not going to give you a question. you are fake news. >> sir, can you state categorically that nobody... no, mr. president-elect, that's not appropriate. >> narrator: trump's combative strategy would come to define his first years in office. >> sir, you did not answer... sir, you did not answer whether any of your associates were in contact with the russian sir, you did not answer, you did t answer whether... >> narrator: it would lead to a showdown with a special counsel that now threatens his presidency.

trump's combative nature hadpe devedecades earlier, when he learned his method for attack and confrontation from this man, notorious lawyer and fixer roy cohn. t mp was created by the politics of intimidation taught to him by his mentor roy cohn, who really was his alter ego. he was his confidante. he was a-- he was an ersatz father. he was the person who trump went to with any kind of a problem. >> narrator: cohn had become a national figure in the 1950s. (newsreel music playing) >> the red-hunting senator joseph mccarthy attends a subcommittee investigation... >> narrator: during a different showdown in washington. >> the scene is washington, and the senate investiga subcommittee. mr. cohn, his friend and aide, was present withenator

mccarthy... >> narrator: the mccarthy hearings, an investigation to expose american communists. it was called "witch hunt." >> recklessly, mccarthy ripped into the reputations of both friend and foe alike... >> narrator:elping to run the show, roy cohn. >> roy cohn was known by anyone who understood anything about american history as being one a the architects of the most sinister period rican history. >> there is detailed testimony in that, in the record, mr. chairman, of levitsky's association, close personal association, with julius rosenberg over a perio years. >> narrator: cohn's tactics were to use any means possible root out what he said were communists deep inside the government. >> they smeared people as communists. they made up charges. they ruined lives. in some cases, drove people to suicide.pl many plost their jobs. cohn never felt guilty for any of it, for a moment.

it was sheer political and career expediency. >> narrator: aftert all collapsed in shame and disgrace, cohn returned to new york city, where his reputation as ak ruthless attacg and political fixer made him notorious. >> roy cohn had 20 years of being a really aggressive, no- holds-barred, go for the jugular, fight back, anybody says something to you, throw it back at tm, guy. he was famous for that behavior. >> narrator: he was just what ambitious young donald trump was looking for. d ump hired him. >> the family e trump organization and his father, fred trump, had been accused of racism in their housing practices. >> trump's regular lawyers, the ordinary kinds of lawyers, tell, settle it. just move on, do the right thing." and he asks roy cohn about it. and roy cohn says, "don't settle it. fight, fight, fight. you got to fight."

and that becomes kind of his early credo and his approach, ich is, "even if you're in the wrong, fight." >> we expect to be successful in court. we're not doing this for any other reason. >> nartor: they countersued the u.s. government for $100 million. in court filings, cohn compared the department of justice to the nazis, alleging "gestapo-like" tactics. >> in a pattern we can recognize som trump's behavior to t day, attacking the accusers, attacking, indd, the justice department, as a way to sort of throw a smokescreen around the c originme. >> narrator: cohn's suit against the justice department was thrown out, trump forced to settle. they had lost. but in the press, trump and hn declared victory. >> it was just like it didn't matter what the facts were, you know. this was a victory, we beat the government. it had nothing to do w reality. >> he's a counter-punc you know-- boom, boom, boom!

and admits nothing. never admit anything.r ney you made a mistake. just keep coming. l and if ye, declare victory. and that's exactly what happened there. he lost as clearly as you ca lose, but he loudly proclaimed his victory. >> narrator: cohn had given aump a formula for surviv success. in lawsuits and life, trump adopted cohn's method... (people talking in background) ...always be on the offensive. >> you can't say that i give up very easily. >> narrator: through more than 4,..0 lawsuits, win or lose. te>> it was a unanimous vo, i'm very happy. >> narrator: trump would rely on what roy cn taught him. >> not at all. we had a great victory, i'm happy as hell. thank you very much. >> in e old days, the sports of kings and queens was horse racing. now it's litigation. and donald trump definitely

plays that sport. and he plays it very well. >> there's a brand-new team in charge of the white house, a brand-new staff to keep the wheels turning... >> president trump wakes up wi d a bu ahead... >> this is just the beginning of what it is like... >> narrator: as president,am donald trumpto washington determined to confront the established order. he'd use roy cohn's attack strategy... >> ...on the first business... >> narrator: take on the powers- that-be... >> ...fighting with the media... >> narrator: ...branl with criticd the media... >> ...now falsely accusingth press... >> narrator: ...sort out fomend froe. >> he's going to come in, and he's just going to start action right away. he's not going to wait. he's notoing to take his time. he knows what to do, and he's going to fix everything, he'sg go set the world right immediately. >> a wild day at the trump white house...ru >> presidentmp's travel ban has been blocked in the court... >>.arrator: executive actio tweets. firings. >> he's man always in motion. he always wants things. but you know what? people aren't used to that. people aren't used to a president who's going directly

to t american people with hi twitter feed. a lot of chaos and controversy here in washington, dc. >> ...so many leaks with im>>nity. you pick up the paper. >> narrator: in waington, it was seen as chaos-- but this was trump's comfort zone. >> he was going to shake things up. heas going to move at a mu more rapid pace. it's very tough for the bureaucracy to kind of keep up. it's a little bit of a whiplash. >> a meeting with law enforcement officials there... th narrator: and there was a looming showdown the fbi and james comey. the two would face off again at keoto op. >> trump's dislior james comey was visceral. comey was investigating the russian collusion and that made trump extremely nervous. partly it was the infamous briefing about the dossier that drove trump crazy. >> comey is standing ia blue blazer against blue drapes. that was not an accident. he is standing literally as r away from trump as it is possible to be in that room. ra

>> nr: this time, trump made it clear who was in charge. >> and the president calls him out, says, "no, no, no, come here, come here." >> so let's... oh, and there's james. he's become more famous than me. >> "this guy is more famous than me," which comey knows, even g then, ng to be a problem. >> jim comey, wanting to be sure that his arm was outstretched it uch a way as to create just a nice, distant handshake. but instead, the president pulls him in and goes for the hug. why is it... it's unclear exactly why, but goes in for the hug. >>rump pulls him in and whispers something in his ear.er but to the c it looks as if trump is giving him a kiss on the cheek. >> when somebody's president, the least tiny gesture is magnified by 12 billion times. so, you call somebody over, you

whisper in their ear, you kind of hug tm, that's a big deal. >> comey sees danger. comey sees politics. comey doesn't want any part of this. by pushing jim comey to come across the room, and shakeis hand, he was setting the tone of their relationship. you know, "you work for me. you're loyal to me, right?" that's what he wants to know. he wants to know, "you're loyal to me." >> narrator: for james comey, donald trump was a threat to the fbs independence. and on a personal level, a threat to the reputation he had built over a lifelong career in law enforcement. he had begun as an assistant unitedtates attorney. >> i first met jim comey 30 years ago, when he and i both started as assistant u.s.s attorn the southern district of new york. rudy giuliani swore us in a few weeks apart. stm comey, certainly, as a young prosecutor, waight down the middle. always turning square corners.

ep narrator: under george w. bush, he was named attorney general, but he clashed with the president when he led a revolt of justice department officials. >> his real claim to fame is this moment duri the bush administration where he won't support a provision of president bush's wireless wiretapping program, and the white house is incensed by this. h did feel strongly that it was the justice department's job to uphold the law. and in that situation, he thought that it was he takes the law really seriously as an autonomous force in public life. hi >> narrator: the house backed down after comey and other justice department officials threatened to resign. >>ut then what happened ne tells you a lot about comey. it was jim comey who ultimately testified in a major way before congress about what had happened. >> (clears throat) i couldn't stay if the

administration was going to engage in conduct that the department of justice had said had no legal basis. i simply couldn't stay. >> mr. comey, i'm commending you for what you did here.to >> nar it was one of many times comey would go before the cameras. >> he was in the spotlight more than any fbi director that i ever worked for, and i think he felt that he could use that spotlight in ways that other directors hadn't used. >> ...having the courage to speak the truth. (spectators applauding) >> rublicans who don't like comey because of his dust-ups in the george w. bush administration tend to call him "saint jim," a guy in love with his own rectitude. >> jim comey is, by his own acknowledgement, has a veryk- blacd-white view of the world with very little room for gray. jim comes view of the world is that if decides that it's the right thing to do, everybody else should agree with him. >> more breaking news now, fox news can confirm that fbi director james comey...

>> narrator: president barack obama named comey fbi director.2 and during t6 presidential campaign, comey made himself the once of the fbi's investigation of hillary cli email server. el>> they were extremely cs in their handling of very sensitive, highly classifiedin rmation. >> comey has been at the middle of this election, and arguably is the person who most significantly influenced itr otan the candidates themselves. >> there's a through line in jim comey's career. and that is th intense conviction that he is sometimes the only righteous pson in any organization. stif there is one characte of comey's that is both his strongest characteristic and his weakness, it's this self-regard that can cross into self-righteousness. >> russia has come uagain and again... >> narrator: and now, as comey led the investigation into russian interference, he would

find himself on a collision course with the present. >> the very inauguration of president trump, you know, poses challenges to the fbi, because they have investigationsn paul manafort, the former campaign chairman, carter page, foreign licy adviser to the president's campaign, george igpadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the cam and michael flynn, the national security adviser. so, i mean, these are four people in the nationality space who are all under fbi investigation. >> and now l's start talking about players like russia. >> narrator: now, comey dispatched two fbi agents to tha white house ensitive mission. >> they go to the white house to interview the national security adviser just days after the opening of a new administration. there's no... no precedent you can think about that. at least, in modern times. >> narrator: the agents arrived to confront the national security adviser, michael flynn. >> what's the fbi doing at the

white house? what business do they have init the house? how is it that michael flynn's meeting with... with fbi agentsw withouhout a lawyer present? what, is he out of his mind? i mean thas just, that's to me... that should never happen. >> narrator: the fbi wanted to know the details of a phone call flynn had during the transition with the russian ambassador, sergei kislyak. >> kislyak places a call to s flyns, "i want to talk to you." flynn gets word of this, and eventually later that day they talk. the queson is what was said. >> narrator: the fbi already knew from electronic surveillance thaflynn and kislyak had discussed the obaman administrati's sanctions on russia. now, on the record, th asked flynn about it. >> he dissembles. suggests that he did not have such conversations with the russian ambaador. >> narrator:ourt documents detail what happened. >> "flynn falsely stated that he did not ask russia's ambassador to refrain from escalating the

situation in response to sanctions." >> narrator: comey's ahad caught flynn lying to the fbi-- a federal crime. >> the questn is about coincidental timing of a call... >> narrator: at fbi headquarters, what comey had was explosive. the evidence against flynn was shared across the street with the justice department. acting attorney general sally yates s read in to flynn's fbi interview. >> sally yates is a careerrt justice dent prosecutor. 27 years in the department, a tough cookie, but a genteel southernoman. >> she's saying, "we need to tell the white house. flynn has lied, and the russians know that those are lies. we need to mitigate the risk." >> nartor: yates would head to the office of the new white house counsel, don mcgahn. >> don mcgahn is a kind of stalwart conservative lawyer. not someone who has a record of serve within the department justice. not someone who's been schooled in exaly these kinds of

questions. >> narrator: yates and her deputy, mary mccord, told mcgahn that michael fly had been lying. >> i think that, you know, for a person who'd bn in the office for six days, it was surprising information to learn and just took a little bit of time to process. >> what the acting attorney general was saying to the white hounsel, "you have someone working in this building, in this west wingwho is compromised." >> narrator: they believed the information they gave mcgahn would force the president to act. >> it's clear that yates and mccord believe this is a ver vulnerable situation for the white us as well as for mr. flynn. and they presume that the white house would fire him. >> narrator: that same day, mcgahn went to see the president. he told him that the highest levels of the justice department believed that flynn had been lying. it was a warning that one of his most trusted advisers was in the crosshairs. fe michael flynn is the former director of the e intelligence agency who

effectively became donald trump's top national security adviser. >> please welcome retired unitei states armtenant general michael flynn. >> he became a very trusted andl e confidant, of not just of president trump, but president trump's family. >> we do not need a reckless president who believes she is above the law. >> narrator: flynn's har rhetoric had endeared him to trump and his supporters. >> lock her up. that's right. yeah, that's right, lock her up! >> narrator: trump and flynn bonded, and he was one of thepr ident-elect's first appointments. >> they had a very good chemistry. but what people underestimate, i sothink, is the need for pl chemistry inside the white house, and general flynn and the president had personal chemistry. >> narrar: and now trump had been told flynn was in trouble with the f. >> mike flynn knows a lot of

things, mike flynn could be a dangerous person to have under pursuit of investigators. clearly he sees that this investigation has the potentl of getting out of his control and leading places tt it might not be helpful to him to have it lead. >> narrator: one day after he had talked to mcgahn about flynn, trump took a fateful step. he called mey. >> surprise call from the president. ner,t to come over for d jim?" and comey says, "uh, yeah, sure, mr. president." >> it's clearly not a coincidence that the president suddenly invited cey over for dinner that night, right after mcgahn was briefed about mike flynn's criminal jeordy. >> narrator: already on edge about the meeting, when comey arrived, he discovered the table had been set for two. >> two. nobody else is going to be there. he and the president, thean br, attempted bromance, continues. >> narrator: suspicious of the president's motives for the eting, comey again memorialized the conversation.

>> "we sat facing each other at a small oval table set for two and placed in the center of the room." >> cey says the president ha very nice words for him, and so it's this pleasant conversation. ltd then the president says, "can i expect lofrom you?" >> "he needed loyalty and expected loyalty. i did not reply, or even nod, or change my facial expression." >> narrator: the president would ask for comey's loyalty several times during the dinner. >> it's a remarkable moment. a president demanding loyalty of an fbi directo i can't think of any other president in the modern era who would do that. they understood, as people who had been in government before, that that's not the ro of an fbi director. >>y,he then returned to loya saying, 'i need loyalty.' i plied that he would alwa get honesty from me." >> in the eyes of the whitee, horesident trump was feeling out comey about where the investigation stood, how hen was going toe it. comey saw it as intimidation, possible obstruction of justice. this is the moment where things

really start to split. o this is the roy cohn vi the world. this has been the donald trump ew of the world. this is the way he's done business. "either you're with me or you're against me.te the other guy's team?"u on >> narrator: trump had failed to win comey over. then, two weeks later, there was another leak. this one to the "washington pst." >> the "washingtt" broke this news, they say that nationalecurity adviser michael flynn did discuss... sc>> narrator: the "post'soop publicly revealed the details of iaatlectronic surveillance o flynn's call with n ambassador kislyak. >> we had found out that, in fact, there were intercepts, and had a variety of souaying that, yes, they had discussed sanctions. >> and this morning, multiple news outlets report... >> narrator: as the story dominated the news coverage in, washingte president headed to florida, accompanied by the primminister of japan and mi flynn. >>..that goes against the

denials of flynn himself... >> narrator: on board, the press-- armed with the "post" story-- were waiting for the new president. >> narrator: though he had kno about the intercepts for weeks, trump claimed ignorance. >> ...without sanctions, maybe trying to... >> thank you, thank you verymu . >> narrator: but the scandal would only grow. f mer acting attorney general sally yates "informed the trump white house late last month that she believes..." >> narrator: that meeting between acting attorney generall yates and white house counsel don mcgahn had also leaked. >> she apparently told the white house that the national securi adviser might be personally compromised, and again, vulnerable to russian blackmail... >> when it comes out that they were warned that he was compromised and that he might have lied to the fbi, and they did nothing about it, that usddenly becomes a scandal that implicates notmike flynn,

but the white house chief of staff, the president, and yone who knew about this warning and failed to take action. f >> narrator: tl force of the washington establishment was turned on trump. >> he's up against a sort of bermuda triangle in washington. you know, you've got the fbi. you've got the media.he and you've gotort of white house lawyers and the justice department all telling him that, "look, this is just, has to happen. flynn has to go." >> narrator: for trump, washington was turning out to be a very different place than new york. >> the battlefield is littered with numerous people who have come out of new york and gone down to washington, to think g to workgs are go down there just like they do in new york, and then they find out, much to their dismay, that's not how it is. >> narrator: under pressure,um gave in. he could keep flynn no longer.em >> .ttled national security adviser michael flynn has stepped down. >> narrator: trump accepted flynn's resignation. >> ...shake-up for the trump

adnistration... >> ...caps off a tumultuous first month in office... >> narrator: flynn was gone, but still in jeopardy from an tive fbi investigation. now the president took an extraordinary step. >> on valentine's day 2017, there was a meetinin the oval office between the attorney general and the director of the fbi, jim comey. >> narrator: as the meeting ended, the preside tried to tpty the room. he wanted to spethe fbi director alone. >> and attorney general jeffns se kind of lingers. and comey thinks that's because sessions knows the predent should not be meeting alone with the fbi director. >> narrator: comey was wary. as he had before, he would write notes of what haened. >> "the a.g. lingered momentarily by my chair, but the president thanked him and said he wanted to meet with jim. he repeated this at least one more time to usher people out." >> if you're comey, you're sitting there and thinking, "whais it the president need to say to me that he can't say

in front of the attorney general?" jim comey's a longtime prosecutor, and right away, i suspect his antennae were going up and sing, "this is evidence of a guilty mind right here, what he's about tosk me to do." >> he finally gets the t of them, just the two of them in the room, and then proceeds toto geork on the michael flynn issue. >> "he began by saying he wanted to 'talk about mike flynn.'" >> saying, "can you just kind of ease up on him, he's a reall good guy." >> "'i hope you can let this go.' i replied by saying, 'i agree he is a good guy,' but said no more." >> is the president asking the fbi director to stop looking at russian interactions with the campaign? is he trying to shut down a counterintelligence probe that began in july of 2016? >> trump's talking to theor diref the fbi about an ongoing investigation by the fbi.

and at that point, he's really, from comey's perspective, crossed the line. >> that's really in dire contravention of policies that have been in place ever sincet watergate, to ve that type of interference by the white hoe in investigations undertaken by the department or the bureau. l >> comves that meeting fairly sweaty-palmed. goes to his car and begins opening his laptop and typing down the words, the phrases that he can remember the president said, because he's that scared of, of what this is that has just happed. >> there's an old adage in the organization that, "if iten ha and you didn't write it down, it didn't happen." and so i think that he was thinking, at that time, that, you know, "the president is at least walking himself down thisa trail investigation, where he could become a subject of the investigation, and i need to be able to document what has happened."

>> narrator: once again, comey and trump were at odds. comey headed to the justice department to confront jeff sessions about what had just haened. >> comey pulls the attorney general aside and says, "you can't leave me alone with the president like that. u're supposed to say, 'm president, i need to stick around for this.' or, 'no, mr. president, i haveyo to advise thatknow, somebody else should be here.' you gotta back me up." >> the job of the attorney general is to insulate the fbi from inappropriate political interference. at that mont, sessions realized that he did not do what was expected of him. and the question is, does he have the spine to do it? >> narrator: sessions knew how things worked at the justice department. nc he hadbeen a united states attorney in alabama, where he built a reputation as a ck-ribbed conservative. it formed the foundation of a run for e senate. >> if we undermine honesty, hard work, and discipline, then we'

undermine the strength of this nation. >> for senate, jeff sessions. >> narrator: he served in the senate for 20 years as a law and order conservative. >> i've been beat up by jeff sessions in senate judiciary hearings, and very pro-law enforcement.an you know, what you see with jeff sessions is what you get. very predictable, hardline conservative. >> narrator: in 2016, sessions decided to play a long shot. he would support donald trump, and if he won, many believed he'd become a prime candidateto for rney general. >> and i want to just introduce you to him for a second, senator jeff sessions. (cheering) >> he was invaluable to the campaign in helping to get president trump elected. >> wow! what a crowd this is

>> he was the first senator to endorse president trump. he held a rally with him down in alabama. and at the time, people didn't ow if he'd be the president or not. >> at this time in americans' history, we need to make america great again. >> because sessions endorsed trump, trump didn't have to prove that he was a conservative, because jeff dssions is sort of the "g housekeeping" seal of approval for a lot of conservatives, particularly in the south, where trump was very succe >> i'm proud to have you with us. d bless. >> narrator: trump appointed sessions as attorney general. but from almost the beginning, there was a problem. >> ...as two more trump campaign officials facecrutiny over their contacts with russia. >> narrator: interactions between russians a the trump campaign were becoming public. edd at his confirmation hearing, sessions was askbout them. >> cnn has just published a story saying, "there was a

continuing excnge of information during the campaign between trump surrogates and intermediaries for the russian government." >> senator franken, i'm notny aware off those activities. thhave been called a "surrogate" at a time or two i campaign, and i did not have communications with the orussians, and i'm unable comment on it. >> narrator: but before long, the "washington post" reported sessions had in fact met on at least two occasions with the russian ambassor, sergei kislyak. >> "senator jeff sessions spoke twice last year with russia's ambassador to the united states, justice department officials said, encounters he did not disclose." >> narrator: nevertheless, sessions continued to insist he d nothing wrong. >> well, i have not met with any russians at any time to discuss any political campaign, an those remarks are unbelievable

to me and are false, and i don'e nything else to say about that. >> today republicans urged thewh trume house to quickly resolve the controversy... >> attorney general jeff sessions has repeatedly resisted... >> narrator: in the face of anon aught of reporting, the story became impossible for sessions to ignore. >> jeff sessions too tied to the campaign...ro >> he was cosed. jeff sessions misled the senate during his confirmation hearing about that.ou he had lied whether he had that meeting. >> narrator: now, department ofu ice staff advised sessions to recuse himself from the investigation. >> it was appropriate for him to recuse. and i think the appearance of impropriety, if not the reality, is something that was really important to avoid. >> narrar: but the president had disagreed. he wanted sessions to be his first line of defense against comey. >> the president expects of jeff sessions, and really a lot of peopleround him, complete loyalty. he wants people to protect him.

he wants people to, if possible, bend the rules a bit so that they can make sure that they have his back. >> the democrats, as you could imagine, having a field day with th, saying... >> lawmakers on both sides have been calling on jeff sessions to recuse himself... >> trump was visiting a huge new aircraft carrier in newport ner, virginia, at the harbo there, and it was a big event.r: >> narratorump would use the photo op to send a message to jeff sessions. >> narrator: the president had alreadinsisted his counsel, don mcgahn, tell sessions not te cuse himself, and now trump said it publicly. >> when did you first learn that sessions spoke to the russian ambassador? did you know during the campaign? >> narrator: but without consulting trump, that same day, sessions called a press conference.

>> i have now decided to recuse rmyself from any existing future investigations of any matter relating in any way to the campaigns for president of the united states. thank you all, thank you. >> nartor: in his battle against comey, trump had just lost h best chance to shut down the investigation. >> and i think there's frustration there, frustration that he appointed someo be loyal, and that person abdicated responsibility. >> he, he's feeling the same thing that all predents feel, just that they don't typically feel it within the first few weeks of an administration. and that is, "i don't have as much power as i thght i had." >> for the first time, fbi director james comey willal re. >> narrator: and now, comey would go public, in testimony before congres >> another political drama set to unfold.me james coy will publicly answ questions... >> narrator: with sessions on the sidelines, comey was again in the spotlight. >> ...and tell you what he

knows, go public on live television, no filter.ra >> narr: he appeared in front of the house intelligence committee and on national television. >> ..with the white house on the line... >> president trump is heading into a high-stakes... >> le him or hate him, jim comey is a remarkable communicator. and i'm sure that mr. trump watched a lot of that testimony, if not all of it. >> mr. chairman, ranking member schiff, memberse committee, thank you for hecluding me in today's hearing. i'm honored to b representing the people of the fbi. i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm... >> and he says, "i have been auforized by the department justice to confirm," and, and, kind of all heads turne television in every newsroom in erica. and we're saying, "is comey going to confirm on the record that they're investigating the trump campaign?" >> ...that the fbias part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the nature of any links between individuals

associated with the trump campaign and the russian government, and whether therena was any cooron between the inmpaign and russia's... >> he confirms thiront of these lawmakers. and that's kind of a big moment. suddenly we're off to the racesi thnow, to trump's mind, a directnd public threat to his presidency. >> i just want to makewe get this on the record. do you have any evidence that usany current trump white or administration official coordinated with the russian intelligence services? >> not a question i can answer. >> that was the death knell, atw least understand the president's thinking.an once he hearsaw that-- because apparently he was watching-- that was, at least in his mind, at was the end of jim comey. >> you know, there is a big gray cloud th you have now put over people who have very important work to do to lead this country. >> it was surreal. it was a waking nightmare to

hear director comey say that on live national television. he put everyone close to president trump under a cloud. >> the head of the fbi droppedls two bombshelanding at the white house doorstep. >> ...comey publicly confirming for the first time... >> narrator: with flynn caugly g and sessions having recused himself, another showdown was becoming inevitable. >> a notorious moscow bank is w part of the... >> narrar: and the press had also ratcheted up the pressure as they uncovered more meetings between russians and trump >> ...possible ties between russian officials and trump... >> this is just not normal.ke it just seems here's more and more meetings, they just keep coming out. >> this time, it is the president's son-in-law and seni adviser... >> narrator: many of the stories focused on jared kushner, the president's son-in-law. >> kushner had met wh a top russian banker who was known to be close to president putin t duri transition. he had also had a conversation with sergei kislyak, the russian ambassador, and there had been even the discussion about setting up a back channel of

communication to moscow. >> narrator: now, kushner was increasingly under scrutiny. >> jared is learning that his actions, especially with michael flynn, his interactions withva ous russians, is under investigatio as well, and whether he's been honest about them and what was going on in ose conversations. >> kushner headline today and tonight...r: >> narrahe scandal had now reached the president's family. >> the notion that there's this investigation at the justice department and the fbihat could encompass his children, his son-in-law, and possiblyis business interests, is getting him very, very nervous. >> jared kushner, the president's son-in-law, had a previously... >> narrator: trump, inundated by the headlines and under pressure from comey, left washington. he headed for his country club in bedminster, new jersey. >> it's a sort of rainy weekend in bedminster. so donald trump is supposed tobe ut golfing.

he's stuck inside. he's in a sort of foul mood anyway. >> the president was frustrated. his family was frustrated. they felt like they were being swept into this riptide of an investigation. and they thought if they could just pluck comey out, that maybe the investigation could end. >> also, new whirlwind developments reported... >> narrator: in bedminster on that rainy weekend, wiout any of his most senior staff members present, donald trump would make the most consequential decision of his first year in office. >> there is essentially no adult in the room. certainly no legaldult in the room, who really has an understanding of what this is going to mean, not just politically, but legally. t >> narratomp decided he would get rid of comey. >> trump comes tthe conclusion that, "i can't put up with this anymore. i'm going to fire jim comey." there's no consultation. there's just gut instinct and raw anger. >> narrator: trumpictated a letter to comey.>> t is a rant, the original draft.

nobody's original draft is that aleat, but this draft is donald trump unloading of the reasons that comey has failed him. >> narrator: on sunday, donald trump returned to washington with the letter, determined to carry out his plan to stop jim comey once and for all. catingey has been in that he knows so much more than he's letting on.... >> comey opens up another investigation into... >> james comey isn'tacking down. he's said he wouldn't... >> ...still as an active part of an fe investigation, was ther collusion between trump associates... >> narrator: the next morning in the west wing, the word was out. trump s preparing to take the fateful step of sending the totter. >> word gets bacon mcgahn, the white house counsel, that this document has been prepared. and he freaks out. >> our understanding is that don mcgahn reads that and says, "yeah, you-- you don't want to umnd that." >> narrator: even s abrasive adviser steve bannon was stunned. >> of all people, steve bannon

is the one in the room who's saying, "you can't get rid of this guy jim comey. this would be a terrible, terrible mistake. it's going to cause a firestorm." >> narrator: although trump had the executive power to fire comey, bannon foresaw dire political consequences. o bannon has more of a sense of history than a lthe people who are in that white house. and so, he knows the history of watergate. and he alsknows about obstruction of justice, and what it could look like if trump fires come >> there's no way mcgahn saysnt that this docuan be used as the basis for firing jim comey-- "no way, no how, give me the document." >> narrator: the white house counsel had an alter. >> mcgahn had separately learned that rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, also had concerns with jim comey. and he brokers this deal. so he bacally says to the president, you know, "mr. president, you don't need to send that. you should really talk to rod rosenstein."

narrator: they set up a meeting between rosenstein, attorney general jeff sessions, and the president. >> the president lets them know he wants to fire james comey, that's clear. and the directive for sessions and rosenstein ito draw up the rationale, to write memos explaining why they believe comey had made mistakes on the job and deserved to be fired. >> narrator: they had their orders. rosenstein would do his part, a task that would place him at the epicenter of a historic decision. he had spent his life learning the law-- first at theo universipennsylvania, and then harvard law school. >> he's a lifelong republican. he was a member of the federalist society, the conservative legal movement. >> narrator: with ken starr, rosenstein was part of the independent counsel'sin stigation of bill clinton. eventually, george w. bush and barack obama made him united states attorney. >> he has served in both

democratic and republicanmi strations as the u.s. attorney in the district of maryland. and so, enjoys, you know, a bipartisan reputation that is and was well-earned. a so he'ofessional. >> narrator: now, rosensteind woulcase against jim comey's handling of the fbi. rod rosenstein, this guy who served 27 years in the justice department, a boy scout, he looks like a boy scout, and he thinks that comey has violated the justice department norms by talking too much about hillary clinton during the election.r: >> narrahe president wanted the memo as soon as possible. it was a rush job. he delivered it the next day. r rosenstein's memo echoed what a lot of the hillarymp clinton gn people had been saying for months-- that comey had inserted himself into the election. he'd made himself too public. he had taken on a le that did

not really belong to him. " e director ignored another long-standing principle: we do not hold press conferences to release derogatory information about the subject of a declined criminal investigation." >> trump doesn't care about whah comey did t hillary clinton, but it becomes the excuse, or at least the initial excuse t white house uses to explain why they were firing the fbi director. to >> nar donald trump had fired hundreds of people face to face on "the apprentice." this time, as president, it would be different. >> he just decides to do it. trump isn't going to deliver ths e himself. he sends his longtime bodyguard in a white house car with the pink slip over to the fbi to deliver the bad news. >> keith schiller, the president's body man, can't get to the fbi. the fbi is not a place you can

just walk and be, like, "i havey a note for c i'm from the white house." "great, you're from the white heuse, super. you can't come i." >> narrator: he dropped off the letter and left. >> breaking news: james comey has en removed from heading the fbi... >> narrator: comey was out of town. >> and he was at our los angeles field office giving a talk to the office, and you know, behino ththe news it said that jim comey was just fired by the president of the united states. >> president trump has fired james comey as director the fbi. it comes without warning... >> he actually makes a comment to the audience like, "oh, look that-- i just got fired," thinking that, you know, it was a mistake. and then i think one of his staff came over to him and said, "loo we need to leave. this, this is-- this is real." >> well, this is a big shock. they did not see this coming... da a stunning announcement from the white house president trump fired... >> narrator: news helicopters were waiting as comey left the fbi field office. >> it was a major sucker punch in the gut. id

he was wy regarded throughout the organization. there were a few people that f were, were ns, so to speak. but even they were upset... >> ...has drawn comparisons to president richard nixon's "saturday night massacre." >> ...in terms of how he learned that he had been dismissed or fired. moments ago, breaking news that no one saw coming today: we learned that president trump has fired... y >> this is a very closelpt secret here at the white house. i am told only a handful of top advisers... >> ...calling it stunn unprecedented.re comey appaly is also caught... >> narrator: shock, anger, and chaos engulf washington. >> amid mounting outrage on capitol hill, some lawmakers are questioning the country's... >> narrator: at the white house, they struggled to offer an explanation. >> i feel like the white house is not interested in-- in getting to the bottom of this, though. >> the press office is suddenly thrust out there to explaia decision they had no part in, that they didn't know much about, reporters who were trying to figure out what was going onit was-- it was chaos.

>> the comey firing came without warning and stunned... >> narrator: by the time the white house hit the airwaves, the story e press office told was that rosenstein's memo was the primary reason for the firing. to >> the deputy ey general is a gentleman by the name of rod rosenstein-- rosenstein. he made a determination that the fbi director had lost his confidence. >> the message from the ite house is, "we fired comey because he botched the hillary clinton investigation, period." >> you know, to those who say, "why now, why fire james comey now?", what do you say? >> well, i would point them to the three letters that were received today, anderson: the letter by president donaet trump, ther by attorney general sessions, and really the underlying report by deputyl attorney genod rosenstein, who the fbi director reports to. >> all of the people spinning on behalf of the white house told ine press that the comey f was based on a memo from rod rosenstein, the deputy attorneya ge which had to do with comey's performance in the hillary clinton investigation. inwell, the press wasn't b

that. >> most of this letter focuses on hillary clinton's emails. this is stuff that as a candidate, donald trump praised james comey for. >> this was sort of like a, a mind-bending situation, right? because the president, w campaigned on, like, "lock her up" is firing the fbi director, and then pointing to these memos that say, "well, you wfair to hillary clinton." and so we were just trying to figure out like what, what actually-- what is going on here >> he took the recommendation of his deputy attorney general who oversees the fbi directory. >> that makes no sense.se >> it does make. >> he said one thing as a candidate and now he's concerned as president? c >> ...it makplete sense. because he has lost confidence in the fbi director, and he took the recommendation of rod... >> the white hou said it was deputy attorney general, rod rosenstein... >> narrator: at the justice department, rosensin was surprised he was receiving all the blame. >> white house says prident ump fired comey because of rosenstein's recommendation. >> rod rosenstein sees what's happening, and that his reasons are being used as the pretext to

justify the president's action. he was none too pleased once he saw that that was happening. >> rod rosenstein is not particularly happy that the white house isinning the blame... >> rosenstein is blown away, and he actually calls sessions and says, "i am going to resign if psis, if you keep saying this, if the president kaying this." >> this memo, by rod rosenteein, it's dated yay, so really... >> ...many questioning if comey was firebecause the white house feared... >> narrator: the next morning, on the president's go-to network, fox news... >> you're fired! president trump oustthe fbi director, james comey. >> narrator: the news was all limey, all the time. >> kevin corke i at our nation's capital with the details. >> narrator: the president wouce brate comey's firing behind closed doors with two unlikely white house guests-- russian foreign minister sgei lavrov and ambassador sergekislyak. >> just ahead of today's meeting with the russian foreign

minister...in >> (sig): oy. that meeting. >> he is the highest-ranking russian official that the president has met so far... >> in a way, it's... it's,t's like a play: you can't believey it reappened. but the president is essentially celebrating with t russian fplomats. >> one day afting the man heading that probe into the trump campaign ties to russia..r >> no u.s.-basorters, no american white house reporters are in the room. >> the russis came in with a photographer from their state media agency, tass, who took photos of this event, photos that were used to some effect in russia as propaganda. >> terrible optics. terrible optics that just... you couldn't have scripted it worse. >> trump says, "we're going to have a great relationship. there's this investition. it's just become a total irritant for me." and he says, "comey's firing

lifted a great weight from me.a the guy wat job." >> first the firing, now the fallout. >> narrator: around washington and the nation, the negative reaction to the comey firing was ining momentum. >> president trump now facing outrage after firing comey... >> ...it is hard to... >> narrator: to address the crisis, the president went on his old network for a one-on-one interview. >> this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >> tonight, stunning revelations from president trump and our nbi news exc interview. monday, you met with the deputy attorney general, rod senstein. >> right. >> did you ask for a recommendation? >> what i did isi was going to fire comey. my decision, it was not... y had made the decision before they came in the room. >> i-- i was going to fire comey... me >> it is a dramatint to see the president come out and not only completely underminehi the case thawhite house had been making, as spurious a case and as transparent a case n thes, it still had b official line.

the president comes out and demolishes that case immediately. >> so, you had already made the decision. >> oh, i was going to fire regardless of recommendation.re >> i think t a level on which president trump doesn't want to be portrayed as just doing the biddinof some aides who write a memo. he's the decider, to coin a phrase. >> in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, "you kw, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. it's an excu by the democrats for having lost an election that they should have won." >> you know, the thing with donald trump is, he often says what he believes and if you just wait long enough he'll-- he'll tell you the truth. i mean, he'll say it. >> it is the interview that will likely dominate... >> narrato the interview backfired. >> the president's comments contradict... >> narrator: it trigged questions about whether comey's firing was an attempt to obstruct justice by the president. >> contradictions and confusiont fr white house... >> ...president admitting russia was on s mind. is

>> narrator: forart, even out of a job, jim comey was not going to be sidelined. i jim comey, who's not known for staying silethe face of controversy and unrest,be ns to defend himself. >> this morning, there is mounting.. >> narrator: comey decided to try to force the justice department to name a special counsel. he had those memos about his meetings with the president as evidce. now, he engineered a leak to the "new york times." >> breaking news, at first reported by the "new york mes," james comey memos saying that trump asked him to end the flynn investigation. >> it was written aftean oval office meeting that he had with the president back in february >> and i refer to it as-- as jim's ak. jim doesn't like to call it that. but it's neither here nor there. f it wasmation that he had, that he passed on to the "new york times." and yeah, i think that the straw that broke the camel's back. >> another cloud of versy hangs over the trump white house... >> the press are demanding a special prosecutor... >> calls are growing louder... >> jim comey, who says that he's above politics, actually knows

way more about political dynamics and the way washington works than most people in this story. >> narrator: as comey hoped, the call for a special counsel grew louder. the decision would fall to rod senstein. >> rod rosenstein watched his reputation get dragged through a the mud for, fentire week by people who he really asspected. and he found there only one way to undo the damage, and that was to appoint a special counsel. >> narrator: a special counsel-- the most powerful investigative tapon the justice departm wields. >> rosenstein said, "i need somee to not only stabilize the investigation, i need to stabilize the department of justice." it had beeunder siege from president trump, from public scrutiny. >> narrator: he named the nation's legendary prosecutors-- former fbi director robert mueller-- to be the special counsel.r, >> and in muelou have the ultimate presence who is discreet, but also experienced, to come in and be that person.

>> we begin with breaking news,o the white in crisis. the justice department appointed a special counsel to... >> this is a guy who has no problem with holding peoplee, accountaeing direct and driven to get the answer. he's going to do it righ you know, in accordance with the rule of law. that's all that matters. >> if you're in the west wing and bob mueller is on your trail, should you be worried? >> you should be afraid. you should be very afraid. >> the justice dartment tonight naming special counsel to take over the investigation into russia's... >> mueer's russia collusion probe... >> mueller could expand the probe... >> narrator: at the white house, the president happened to be meeting with attorney general sessions when rosenstein called to announce mueller's appointment. >> president tru doesn't like to get bad news, and this was bad news. m it we than bad news, it was terrible news. >> and now you see him really leash all his anger on jeff sessions, and plainly tells jeff sessions that, "you are the reason why all of this is happening."

>> trump was furious and took it out on sessions and humiliated him. trump obviously felt himself endangered by a special unsel, and lost his temper. >> trump's law is loyalty to him and what he wants too. as he's famously sd, "where is my roy cohn?" and there are things that jeffio se apparently won't do for donald trump, and donald trump won't rgive him for that. >> narrator: sessions had had enough of the president's anger. >> sessions just ends up bolting out of the white house, rushing out to his car. he said, "you want me to quit?ui i'm going to" >> he's resigning as attorne general. d he'straught. and he's had it. he's at the end of his rope. he's been insulted by trump. he's, he's decided that that's it. >> narrator: in the west wing, all hell broke loose. >> don mcgahn, the legal counsel, bursts into reince priebus' office and says, "we've got trouble. not only do we have a special counsel appointed, but jeff sessions has just resigned."

priebus says, "you're kidding me." heiebus goes running down the staircase intoest wing parking lot. >> finds sessions in his car preparing to lea, and he bangs on the door. "you got to come out. you got to come back in. you can't leave this w you can't just blow up like this." and priebus essentially almost has to drag him back up into the west wing, where vice president pence and steve bannon then come in and joinpr bus and talk sessions off the ledge. >> it's clear that the mueller ininvestigation is just ge started. we're going to head to washington, where the e house... >> narrator: across town, in an undisclosed secure location, the new special counsel, robert s. mueller iii, was just getting started. >> wheyou become a special prosecutor, they give you a piece of paper with a mandate.

at that moment, you don't have anything else. you don't have a staff. you don't have agents. u n't have prosecutors. you don't even have a legal pad and paper clip and a pen. >> narrator: what robert mueller did have was a lifetime of preparation for this moment. >> he volunteered to serve invi nam as a united states marine, highly decorated,in wounded action. >> narrator: in the '90s, mueller had tried his hand in the private sector at a prestigious law firm. he hated it. >> $400,000 a year, he felt like whe wasn't doing the lordk, he quit. >> narrator: he took a substantial pay cut to become ao line prose he worked homicide in washington, dc. >> his great joy was putting away bad guys and answering his phone, "mueller, homicide." >> bob mueller cares about one thing, and onehing only:

indicting bad guysnd putting them in prison. >> narrator: a republican, he'd run the fbi for both george w. bush and barack obama. pulled out of private practice,s robert muellerack at the center of the action. >> ...quietly gatheredam a f more than three dozen attorneys, investigators... >> narrator: from the secure location, he bui a formidable team. >> i believe his term was "ninja assassins"... >> thiis like this moment at the beginning of the "avengers" movies where all the superheroes are kind ospread across the globe, and bob mueller calls them all and they all reassemble together in washington to take on ts new mission. >> and the team mueller has assembled may be the a-team of prosecutors for an entire generation. >> aaron zebley, who was an fbi agent before becoming a prosecuto >> michael dreeben, who is one of the smartest people i know, who's argued over 100 supreme court case >> jeannie rhee, who was a highly respected prosecutor in the u.s. attorney's office. >> andrew weissmann-- he has a

reputation for being a scorched-earth prosecutor. >> mueller put greg andres on his team, who was an experienced mob prosecutor in new york. >> i mean, that was the first sort of warning sign for the trump white house, because they're "killers," steve bannon calls them. >> narrator: mueller's team had broad authority to investigate: russian interference; the trump campaign; and in the wake of the comey firing, possible obstruction of jtice by thems president f. >> there's this question of ctether that act, by itself, constitutes obstn of justice. maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. but that iss didn't even exist before he fired james comey. now it does. now he's the subject of a federal inveigation by a spial prosecutor. >> narrator: mueller also had the evidence from comey's memos: the president asking comey for loyalty, to go easy on mike flynn, the berating of sessions for his recusal, the use of the rosenstein memo.

>> so, you know, you start stringing all these together, and that's how prosecutor would present the case. these improper acts, even if they are not in and of themselves criminal, amount to an intent to obstruct justice. >> narrator: the white house was under siege. the president, in anger andsp ation, returned to roy cohn's strategy-- a forceful counterattack. >> "this is the single greatesti h hunt of a politician in american history!" "there is no collusion and no obstruction. i should be given apology!" "you are witnessing the single greatest witch hunt in american political history-- leby some very bad and conflicted people." >> the predent definitely seized on that term "witch hunt." he used it again and again. he used it in tweets. he used it when he was at a microphone. it's something that he felt was working to undermine the mueller investigation.

>> "after seven months of investigations and 'collusion with the russians,' nobody has been able to show any proof. sad!" >> president trump calling the mueller investigation "witch hunt" has an impact in washington in that the people who wanto be loyal to president trump can use that same language.>> fox and friends" starts right now. >> narrator: and at fox news, that's just what happened. >> the predent is really mad. >> he tweeted this out, "as the phony russian witch hunt continues..." >> this is a very dangerous witch hunt. >> only because i think this is a witch hunt. >> and put an end to the political witch hunt against president trump.to >> narr: trump was avidly watching. >> he likes what he sees on these fox opinion shows, and they often get the benefit of having access to the president. >> get rid of mueller. >> mueller should be dismissed. >> robert mueller must be fired immediately. >> the call for the firing of robert mueller... >> he either pulls the plug now or this will be going on years from now. >> he has daily conversations

with the hosts there. 's able to get his talking points out there. >> the fbi is a shadow government now. >> and what theyid in leaking this information was illegal, correct? >> absolutely illegal, and it almost becomes a soft coup in a sense. >> there is a cleaing needed in our fbi and department of justice. >> narrar: athe "new york times" that summer, they had a lead on what would become the biggest story yet. >> they had discovered anothertw meeting n the trump campaign and the russians. >> my colleagues and i had been doing some reporting on this, the idea that there was another russian meeting that we didn't totally understand, that had been undisclosed during the campaign. >> narrator: they learned donald trump, jr., had hosted t meeting with a russian lawyer, natalia veselnitskaya. also in the room: jared kushner and campaign chairman paul manafort. ...the president gears for what could be his most important... >> narrator: the newspaper wanted a comment from the white ho

but that week, the president was in hamburg, germany, for the g20 summit and his first meeting with vladimir putin. >> this is a big distracti on the sidelines othe summit, as the white house officials try to fure out how to respond to this inquiry from the "new york times." >> the white house s "we want to be helpful. we want to engage on this.ju give us some time." >> narrator: after the summit, the president himself took control of handling the "new york times." >> my phone rings and 's the asr force one operator, you know, "can you plehold?" and it's, "i know we were supposed to have a cl, i knowwe e, we're late, can you just give us a little more time? we're working on this." and of course, we now kn that the front of air force one, hope hicks and president trump are kind of working on this statement. >> he is at the center of it, and driving it. and you have the president physically dictating a message

that he's going to put in the name of his son, donald trump, jr. >> the lawyers for the presiden sing their minds. they are not on air force one, they are not in germany, but they are hearing secondhand tha atement is about to be issued to the "new york times." >> to write a statement, just-- mean that's just amateur hour. but in fairnesto these lawyers, i mean, i-- they couldn't control their client. they still can't controlnt their cl >> the white house responds to a report in the "new york times" that claims donald trump, jr.... >> narrator: trump's statement-- written for his son-- said the meeting was about adoption of russiaorphans. >>orit was a short introducty meeting. i asked jared and paul to stop by.ri we prima discussed a program about the adoption of russian children." >> narrator: but there was a reason for the meeting that the president's statement did not mention. d last night, the "new york

times" publishails about a meeting during the campaign involving a kremlin-linked lawyer... >> narrator: as the president returned to washington, it didn't take long for the truth to come out. >> ...the explosive ne about president trump and russia. it involves donald trump, jr., breang in the last... >> it only takes about 24 hours for that statement to completely blow up. >>thotential bombshell from president's own son, donald trump, jr.... >> narrator: in the days that followed, the "new york times" discovered a series of emails setting up the meeting. >> another day, another instalent in the russian elections...>> the next day we reported that what had actually happened is that don jr. had been promised dirt on hillary clinton by this russian lawyer. >> "the crown prosecutor of russia offered to provide the trump campaign with some offici documents and information that would incriminate hillary and her dealings with russia and would be very useful to your father." >> in the emails setng up the meeting, don jr. was told that 'sis meeting was part of the russian governmefforts to support now-president trump.

>> "thiss obviously very high- level and sensitive information, ft is part of russia and its government's suppo mr. trump." >> i mean, i remember saying, "o my god. it says it, it says it in an email? 'this is part of the russian governme's efforts to support donald trump?'" >> we're talking about top aides ab the middle of the campaign. we're talking out jared kushner, paul manafort, donald trump, jr., sitting down with a russian woman who has told them that she's going to giveth some sort of information on hillary clinton. it's a crystal-clear reasone. why they're tht >> whadoes don jr. writen back email? "if it's what you say, i love it." t, >> "i love ispecially later in the summer." >> coming on top of everything else that had come out about all these russian contacts with the campaign, the trump tower email traiwas incredibly damning.

>> there is no ambiguity about this. this is there inlack-and- white. and whatever they actually talked about in the meeting, the advertised intent of the meeting was collusion.to >> nar for his part, the president would downplay the d portance of the meeting. >> nothing happeom the meeting, zero happened from the meeting. od honestly, i think the press made a very big der something that really a lot of people would do. >> now we've got another email, an email that could... >> narrator: but special counsel robert mueller was paying close attention. the question-- was there anything illegal about the meeting or the misleading statement? he >>resident's lawyers, they're intensely concerned that the president has essentially now added to an obstruction case. >> narrator: mueller would look into to the writing of that statement on air force one. >> if the president's up there, and he's deliberately crafting a lie to cover the purpose of thet

meeting, is nother step in the obstruction investigation? is it also another step in terms of the conspiracy/collusion vestigation? >> it shows that the trump team was willing to engage with the russians... ws what is that special counsel robert mueller k. >> narrator: trump and his family were increasingly in jeopardy. he blamed his attorney general. >> over the summer, the role jeff sessions has played or refused to play, by recusing o himself frrseeing this investigation, increasingly grates on donald trump. it's like the pebble in his shoe, the original sin of theru ia investigation, from his point of view. >> narrator: the president decided to provoke a confrontation with sessions. he invited three reporters into the oval office to send sessions a message on the front page of the "new york times." >> maggie haberman, mike schmidt, and i go in t interview president trump. and suddenly, without any notice, really, he stas really trashing jeff sessions.

>> sessions shouldave never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should've told me before he took the job and i would've picked somebody else.ha >> wreported in the past that he was unhappy with sessions, but we hadn't heard him say that out loud in aik public waythat. he was absorbed by it. he was dwelling on it and he wanted to get this message out. >> it's extremely unfair, and that's a mild word, to the president. >> he was telling the world that he didn't have confidence in his own attorney genera and it was remarkable. >> narrator: and in case sessions didn't get the message it was time for him leave, on twitter, the president ramped up the attack. >> "attorney general jeff sessions has taken a very weak position on hillary clinton crimes." "why didn't a.g. sessions replace acting fbi director andrew mccabe, a comey friend?" "so, why aren't the lemmittees and investigators, and of course our uered a.g., looking into crooked

hillary's crimes and russia relations?" >> in attacking jeff sessions, he's attacking the very nature the attorney general's role and he's attacking the very nature of tha ment of justice. >> narrator: but on capitol hill, where sessionsd in the senate for 20 years, he had powerful allies prepared to fight back against the president. al >> so when dtrump signaled that he wanted to get rid of jeff sessions, his allies, jeff sessions' allies in the senate stood up for him, actually very strongly, in a way that they had not stood up to the president on other issues. >> mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, and chuck grassley, the judiciary committee chairman, made very clear they stand byessions. >> whatever you may think of sessions, he had a lot of supporin congress. and trump ultimately realized that hprobably would not be able to have a replacement confirmed if he actually went ahead and got rid of sessions. >> narrator: the president was stuck. sessions wasn't going anywhere.

>> in the private world, in which citizen trump and i come from, if y hire a lawyer and the lawyer says, "i'm sorry, i n't do the job that you hired me to do," or "i can't do 50% of the job you hired me to do,"u y, "fine, you're fired. i'll go find somebody else." and apparently, he feels like ca's stuck with his current attorney general, e the senate has a say in this, too. >> narrator: so far, trump's strategy of confrontation dn't worked. now, trump reluctantly changed tactics. he would turn to lawyers steeped in the ways of washington. re >> woing to bring in the professionals now. and they bring in some, some peoe who have real washington pedigrees, who know, certainly, who robert mueller is, and who are going to cooperate, and are going to kind of play by the les. >> narrator: john dowd, a longtime washington criminal defense specialist, and ty cobb, an expert trial lawyer, joined

the team.y >>bb is openly saying, "i have great respect for bob mueller. i think he's a patriot." and so he says to mueller, "i'm here and we want to be cooperative." >> narrator: their "get along" strategy: providing morehan a million documents, agreeing to interviews with white house staff, and keeping the president from tweeting. >> you're trying to keep him in the box. you're trying to make sure that he doesn't do something really stupid, i mean, whether it's a tweet or it's a, you know, ill-timed statement, a public statemt. >> narrator: since the president relied on cable tv for information... >> the white house, they hope the investigation will be done within a month or so. >> nartor: ...his lawyers wanted him to hear a positive message. >> they expect the probe to be over soon. >> his lawyers are telling him that, in the words in the story there's a li the end of the tunnel. >> this investigation is coming to an end soon. they're trying to keep calm, they're trying to keep him not only from tweeting... >> narrator: in washington, they

said cobb was speaking to anen au of one. >> there is no reason for it not to conclude soon. >> what is soon? >> and soon to me would be, within the next, you know, fourx weeks. >> ty cobb said itas thanksgiving-- his timeline has moved a little bit-- but that there's no evidence that they see coming forward that hes in real legal jeopardy, and that this will end sooner rather than later. bl >> the p is, we would reach thanksgiving. we would reach christmas. we would reach january and february.th aninvestigation was still going on. so there was no end point. and trump was getting creasingly frustrated and impatient. >> "people with knowledge of the investigation said it could last at least another year. >> ...are much more skeptical, saying there's little indicatio that muellerapping up his work. >> using the word "expeditious" and "special counsel" or "independent counsel" in the same sentence is usually a miste. >> narrator: in fact, robert mueller's office was running at full speed >> this is an investigation that is humming. it is moving.e everyday befa.m., bob mueller comes into the

garage, slips in. witnesses will come in through the garage. they're bringing in every single white house official they can. meanwhile, they're talkinge through all fferent russian interference on social media. this is a sprawling, active investigation. >> now there's this new reporting om the "wall street journal," reporting that special counsel robert mueller's... >> narrator: some of mueller's investigation was finally going public. >> special counsel roblet muhas issued subpoenas... >> narrator: trump campaign foreign policy aide george papadopoulos pled guilty to lying about russian contacts. de>> ...that former trump george papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to making false... >>narrator: trump's campaig chairman, paul manafort, and his deputy rick gates were indicted on numerous charges ranging from conspiracy to money laundering. >> ...manafort and his former business associate rick gates were td to surrender to federal authorities this morning. >> narrator: mike flynn pled guilty to that charge of lying to the fbi. >> white house national security adviser michael flynn has pleaded guilty... >> narrator: the "get along" strategy hadailed. >> ...robert mueller is now issuing his first...

>> he eventually just came to the conclusion that, "i made a mistak i should have come out fighting, given into my own instincts frob the veinning." and i think once the end of the year came, and the inquiry hadn't gone away, so, what he'd been told by his lawurned out to be completely incorrect. >> ...that mueller's team is no longer just asking the trump organization for information, they're legally demanding... >> narrator: the final straw-- news that mueller issued a subpoena directed at trump's private company, the trump organization. ...special counsel robe mueller has subpoenaed the trump organization... ek in andesident, week out, is festering. he's unhappy with this special counsel. he keeps thinking, "when is this going to end?" he gets into screaming matches with dowd and cobb about the sl pace of everything. but dowd and cobb keep saying, "look, we're trying to protect you, but on every other front, provide them with information." >> lead lawyer john dowd is now out. >> narrator: dowd resigned the next week. >> another legal team shakeup

signaling perhaps... . that ty cobb may be on his way out. >> narrator: ty cobb's days were also numbered. >> he's unhappy with everyone because it's not over. ng narrator: trump's williss to cooperate with the investigation was over. >> the presint of the united states is currently under a criminal investigation. >> narrator: and then the fbial dramat escalated the showdown. >> breaking news tonight, and it's a bombshell. the fbi raids the office of n.esident trump's personal lawyer, michael co >> narrator: the president, as he watched the raid on television, was furis. >> trump erupted. he was very upset. he was consumed by this news all day. it was very troubling for him and scary for him. >> fbi raiding his office, hisan homea hotel room. >> white house advisers are saying, "can we turn off the televisions?" all the president is doing, the say,tting himself agitated.er click ov to fox. >> this is a fox ns alert. there is some breaking news today... >> he watches cnn. >> the fbi raids the officent of presiderump's personal lawyer... >> he'll go to msnbc. >> "new york times" breaking the news in the last few minutes that the fbi has raided...

>> he'll go back to cnn. >> ...also seized emails, tax documents, and business records. >> and he'll just keep seeing those o words on the chyron, "michael cohen." and it sends him into a rage.s >> the no-knocby fbi agents were the result of a referral bspecial counsel robert mueller. >> narrator: to the president, it was a personal assault from the fbi, the department of justice, and robert mueller. >> a lawyer is just like a fepriest, a doctor, and a in terms of privilege. so, i don't blame president trump for being a little upsety that someb looking into what he may have told his lawyers. n arrator: the cohen raid was a sign trump's personal life in new york was colliding with his presidency in washington. >> cohen brings it right back to trump tower, to how trump realld operat for decades, having someone like michael cohen, not just a lawyer but a fixer, at his side. >> narrator: for years, trump

had used cohen to protect his image just as he used roy cohn decades before. >> i think that he looked at michael as somebody who would be his day-to-day roy cohn. michael, in a lot of ways, was very good. michael-- um, also was able to close a lot of probls down. >> narrator: cohen liked to brag that he s willing to take a bullet for his boss. >> he portrayed himself as a tough guy. he was willing to sort of intimidate people on trump's behalf, reaten people. he was a bully. >> narrator: cohen shielded trump from bad press. one meth-- blunt threats to journalists. >> mark my worwi sport. make sure that you and i meet one dayov in the courthouse, and i will take you for every penny you stil don't have. all was tor: the reporter tim mak at "the daily beast." >> i'm warning you, tread very (bleep) lightly because what i'm going to do to you is going to be (bleep) disgusting. do you understand me?

don't think you can hide behind your pcause it's not going to happen. >> michael cohen, just thisca bay, just... just threatens this guy like, like some kind of low-life thug. >> i'm more than happy to discuss it with your attorney and with your legal counsel because, mother(bleep), you're going to need it. >> narrator: cohen was infamous for his role in the stormy daniels story-- orchestrating a hush money payment to the adult film stawho threatened to reveal a sexual encounter with trump. >> he cleans up messes, and an accusation about an affair, a demand for some kind of compensation to keep quiet, that's exact the kind of problem that cohen would like to try to solve for donald ump. >> michael is very good at killing stories, and he's gotten ump out of a lot of issues, i would, i would say. and that was his job, and he'sb done a good t of it. >> narrator: now cohen was the target of a federal investigation, one which could t expo work he did for the

president. >> there is a ton that he could tell prosecutors... >> ...a very real possibility atthat he is going to coop >> ...reportedly is connected to the stormy daniels story. >> narrator: the day of the cohen raid, the white houseed insistt was business as usual. they invited the press into a national security meeting. but trump wanted to go on the attack. >> come on in, folks, come in. so, i st heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys-- a good man. and it's a disgraceful situation. it's a total witch hunt. >> the president is so enraged and obsessed with what's just happened that he can't keep himself from talking about it. at a public briefing, he repeatedly uses the words, "disgrace, a disgrace." >> and it's a disgrace.nk it's f a real disgrace. it's a, an attack on our country, in a true sense.

>> something clearly happens with the president after michael cohen comes under scrutiny from the department of justice. the president views that very much as a threat to him. e >> these peove the biggest conflicts of interest i've ever seen. and i have thiwitch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now. >> the investigation of michael cohen has to feel, to the president, like an arrow pointed directly at his chest. it has to feel that this is aimed precisely at uncoveringpr thident's own history, both before he took office and since he took office, in ways that perhaps might be the most deeply sensitive to him. >> this is a pure and simple witch hunt. thank you very much, thank you. (reporters calling out) >> it's a whole other avenue of potential exposure, criminal exposure, to the president.ou >> thankll very much. >> this was clearly someone who was a very close adver and attorney to the president.

and he was especially involved in what might be seen as the president's shady business. (reporters calling) >> narrator: the raid on cohen, mueller'ntinuing investigation-- there was even talk of impeachment. the president was determined to escalate-- bring in a very different kind of lawyer. >> the president has done nothing wrong. read my lips, nothing wrong. >> he hires rudyiuliani, and he really hires a pit bull. he hires someone who is really going to be launching an offensive strategy. >> there's been tomuch government misconduct. ere crimes now have all been committed by the gent and their agents. >> trump wants to be in warrior mode. giuliani agrees. it goes from a private negotiation to a public war. and that's a turning point. >> narrator: trump and giuliani initiated an unfettered attack against mueller's investigation and any move toward impeachment. >> rudy giuliani was gonna change the strategy. he said, "let's really make this

into a political confrontation. let's make it into a blue-red debate and, and conflict. >> so, our jury is-- as it should be-- is the american people. and the american people, yes, are republicans, largely, independents, pretty substantially, and even some democrats now question thele timacy of it. >> what giuliani is saying is, impeachment will never get off the ground unless thic is behind it. >> this is a fox news alert, president trump is getting set to leave the white house... >> narrator: in order to protect himself, the president worked to undermine public confidence in the juice department and the fbi. >> in a long, rambling, campaign rally-style speech... >> one thing we know about this president, he doesn't care aboul eral damage. and he doesn't care about collateral damage on his associates. and he doesn't care about collateral damage on american institutions. and so, the stakes could not be higher. >> in a campaign-style rally, a defiant... >> trump back in his happy place tonight... >> narrator: it was full-on

roy cohn. personal attacks. >> i did you a great favor when i fired this guy. i tell you, i did you a great >> narrator: at campaign-style rallies.se >> bechen you look at what was going on at the top of the fbi, it is a disgrace, andod everin this room understands it. >> narrator: incendiary language about the press. >> these are very dishonest people, many of them. they are very, very shonest people. fake news, very dishon >> narrato tweets.age of >> "fbi texts have revealed anti-trump bias." "@foxnews-- big news, but the fake news doesn't want to cover." >> he has become his own .oy co he is the attack machine. he's the one who will cut your knees out from under you if you get in theay. >> "was there a conspiracy in the obama department of justicep and the fbi vent donald trump from becoming president of t u.s.?" >> he doesn't need a roy cohn

because he is roy cohn. >> "it would seem very hard to obstruct justice for a crime that never happened. witch hunt!" >> "i have the absolute right to pardon myself."t' >> look at whappened. look at how these politicians have fallen for this junk. russian collusion. ve me a break. >> so, long as the country is sort odivided and he h his defenders, he can undermine those who are attacking him. >> take a look at the intelligence agencies. honestly, folks, let m you, let me tell you. it's a disgrace. we got to get back down to business. it's a disgrace. >> is basically a kind of divide-and-conquer kind of strategy. if we can stay in this kind ofst dividee, there will never be enough consensus behind the idea of impeachment ually drive it forward. >> top story we're watchinthis morning, fbi agent peter strzok set to testify about... >> ...will defend hielf against allegations of bias... >> narrator: on capitol hill, house republicans rallied behind

the president-- and joined in his attack strategy. >> republicans are in protect de. ahead of the midterm elections, they want to protect their esident, a president the think is under siege from his own government. the hearing is going to be explosive, we will have full analysis and reaction... an they saw that the giuli strategy was really quite effective, and if you go after mueller and if you go after the justice department, maybe it will work. >> narrator: the republicans' targettop fbi agent peter strzok. aboutstimony that you ar to give shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?> arrator: months before, mueller had removed strzok from his team. >> pete strzok is the embodiment of the president's defenders' case, that the fbi and the justice department are biased against donald trump and the people surrounding him. w and thle investigation is tainted. >> narrator: the hearing focusex on tmessages critical of the

future president between strzok and an fbi attorney with whom he was having an affair. >> you want me to read this? >> yes, please. >> yes, sir. "omg, he's an idiot." >> july 19, 2016. >> "hi. how was trump, other than a douche? melania?". >> july 21, 20 >> "trump is a disaster. i have no idea how destabilizing his presidency would be." >> ms. page said, "not ever going to become president,ig right,?" >> "no, no, he's not. we'll stop it." >> repeat that again? >> "no, no, he's not. we'll stop it." >> peter strzok diand said things that gave them ammunition to say, "wl, you must be biased. therefore, the whole investigation is biased, therefore the whole thing isre dited." >> narrator: strzok said his personal opinions didn't afft his work, and a d.o.j. inspector general's report found no evidence that it had. >> you have come in here and said, "i have no bias." and you do it with

a straight face. and i watched you in the private testimony you gave. and i told some of the other guys, "he's really gd. he's lying. he knows we know he's lying.ro and he couldbly pass the polygraph." it's amazing... >> mr. chairman. >> no, this is my time. >> mr. cirman, i'm sorry, i-- point of order. >> it was an outcry of thee, republican bed up with the establishment. a government was at war with itself in that moment. and louie gohmert was the congressman who personified that battle. >> it's my tim >> that's a disgrace. >> the gentleman from rhode island will suspend. >> no, the disgrace-- what this man has done. >> the gentleman from texas will suspend for a moment. >> there is the disgrace. and it won't be recaptured any time soon because of the damage you've done to the justice system. and i can't help but wonder en i see you looking there with a little smirk, how many times did you look so innocent into your wife's eye and lie to her about

lisa page? >> mr. chairman, this is outrageous. >> credibility of a witness... >> sme on you. mr. chairman, mr. chairman, please. >> have you no decency >> this is intolerable harassment of the witness. rong with that? you need your medication? >> peter strzok becomes a perfect exemplar for them. you know, the symbol of all that they can attach to this, you know, cabal at the top of the fbi. >> chaos on capitol ll, the circus landed in dc. >> the fireworks on capitol hiln unfoldg on live tv... >> republicans and democrats clashing on capitol hill today in the nth degree. >> narrator: republicans were now joining trump's war against mueller, the justice department, the fbi, a the threat of peachment. >> trump has stronger support among republicans thanust about any president of the last eight. he's caused a lot of politicians cower before him. politicians who otherwise are people of integrity, anddo otherwist agree with any of this. and they've gone along, because

he contre politics of his party, including their ability to get reelected. it's really an amazing thing. >> president trump is kicking off his weeklong trip to europe. >> it's mr. trump's first visit as psident. >> narrator: the day after the strzok hearing, donald trump made his first presidentl visit to the united kingdom. >> trump's also meeting with the queen of england. to as the highlight of any president's visihe united kingdom... >> narrator: just then, t reporters justice department were told a surprise announcement was coming. >> we were sitting in the seventh floor of the justice department, waiting for this news conference to begin. the mood in that room was very tense. there was a lot of excitement, people were wondering what would happen, and oncreen was cnn footage. >> let me stop you there.de thty attorney general is speaking in washington. fascinating, l's listen in. >> 11 of the defendants are chkged with conspiring to h

into computers, steal documents, and release those documents with the intent to interfere in the election. >> rod renstein came out and said, "we have identified russian g.r.u. officers, down to the offices where they sat, and their exact mes." >> according to the allegations... >> it was a remarkable moment. ...the defendants worked for two units of the main intelligence directorate of the russian general staff, t known g.r.u. >> i can't remember a split-screen moment quite like this. you have on one side the president of the united states visiting the queen of england. and on the other side of the screen is rod rosenstein. a movie maker couldn't have scripted this to be more extraordinary. >> narrator: a nearly 30-page indictment laid out the details of the russian hacking of the 2016 election in granular detail. >> "unit 74455 was located at 22 kirova street, khimki, moscow, a building..."to >> "the conspi activated

x-agent's keylog and screenshot functions..." >> "and, between 4:19 p.m. and 4:56 p.m., srched for certain words and phrases..." >> it is, by far the most extensive evidence laid out publicly that almost makes it irrefutable that russia did do this. >> nrator: the indictments were the work of special counsel robert mueller. >> after a yr of listening to trump say, "this is all a witch hunt, this is all fake news, nothing is real, there was no collusion," here is mueller's answer. "oh, really? look at this. look what we have." >> when we confront foreign interference in american elections, it's important for us to avoid thinking politically as republicans or democrats, d instead to think patriotically as americans. >> rosenstein, i'm quite sure, enjoyed going out there with an affirmation of justice department independence, to beo ablenounce these indictments about something that

trump says is a witch hunt. t he's been trashings investigation for over a year. what a statement of d.o.j. independence. >> well, well, you've been listening to the deputy attorney neral with a news conference timed literay as the u.s. president and his wife were walking into windsor castle for tea. >> it was a dramatic scene. and for president trump, yet again, the cloud, as he calls it, hangs over his entire presidency. that he doesn't really understand where it's going, orh 's coming next, and if it's coming for him. >> with tensions between thes. u.nd russia at the highest level since the cold war... >> president trump's helsinkiit summitpresident vladimir putin... >> narrator: three days later-- in his first one-on-onsummit with vladimir putin-- president trump showed little concern about the indictment of the russian officers.

>> we've been waiting for now for quite some time. it is very testy in >> i think everybody in the room knew that there was the ngpotential that we were go be witnessing something extraordinary. >> narrator: then they came forward. on television around the world, they would answer a few questions. >> president trump is standing next to the person who intelligence agencies say ordered the hacking and the meddling of our elections. >> i have just concluded a meeting with predent putin on a wide range of critical issues for both of our countries. >> the staff has no idea what's going to happen, obviously. this is a president who doesn't stick to the script, so you never know for sure what he's going to say. >> mr. president, you tweeted this morning that it's u.s. foolishness, stupidity, and the mueller probe that is sponsible for the decline in u.s. relations with russia. >> i hold both countries responsible. i think that the united states has been foolish. i think we've all been foolish.

>> he launches into a monologue a rampout, "we're, we're to blame. the russians might be to blame, but we're also to blame." >> i think that the probe is a disast for our country. i think it's kept us apart, it's kept us separated. there was no collusion at all. everybody knows it. h president putin denied having anything to do we election interference in 2016. every u.s. intelligence agencyha concluded that russia did. my first question for you, sir, is, who do you belie >> "who do you believe?" that's the staest possible way to put that question-- question to the president. >> my people came to me, dan coates came to me, and some others. theyaid they think it's russia. i have president putin.id he just t's not russia. i will say this, i don't see any reason why it would be >> this was somebody who, only gadays after an indictmentst russian military officials,ap

ared to be siding with a foreign country as opposed to the conclusions of u.s. intelligence and u.s. law enforcement. ex i will tell you that president putin waemely strong and powerful in his deni today. >> but if you listen to his words, he's saying, "well, my intelligence chief, dan coates, comes to me and says this. but putin has told my strongly, that he didn't do it." when trump uses the words "very strongly," he's using an adjective to him that means almost more than anyth >> narrator: just before the president left the stage, he had one final statement to make. >> and i have to say, if anybod watched perzok testify eler the last couple of days, and i was in bru watching it, it was a disgrace to the fbi, itas a disgrace to our country. and you would say, "that was a total witch hunt." thank you very much, everybo. thank you. >> the president of the united

states can not let go thatme e is challenging his legitimacy. >> disgraceful play by the president... >> extraordinary moment in american history, something i thought i would never see. ns there was an immediate that that had gone about as bad as it possibly could. that all of their efforts to corral him, prepare him for thio nt, had failed to protect the administration, to proct the president from his own worst impulses. >> the ripples of the event that just took place... >> narrator: as the president boarded air force one to return washington, the fallout wasin gr >> delivering a stunning rebuke to his own u.s.... >> republican strategists texted me immediately, lling it a disaster. they worried that the russia issue could now me roaring back, just months ahead of the midterm elections. narrator: the negative tweets were immediate and overwhelming. former c.i.a. director john brennan call it treasonous. republican senators john mccain,

jeff flake, and bob corker, and dozens of other congressional republicans, were strongly critical. >> it appears mueller has convinced yet another has witness to... >> the russia investigation heating up on several fronts... >> narrator: trump tried to walk back some of his remarks, but as the summer came to alose, the ultimate showdown was loomoming. conspiracy theory, deep state. >> narrator: mueller was closing in on the president's inner circle. paul manafort-- guilty, and agreed to cooperate with mueller. >> convicted in federal court on financial crimes... >> we got the guilty verdict in the paul manafort case... >> narrator: micha cohen, guilty-- and in open court, implicated the president. >> his fmer lawyer implicating him in campaign finance violations... >> narrator: and reports that white house counsel don mcgahn, an eyewitness to the events in the west wing, voluntarily talked to mueller's team for 30 hours. >> juslearned white house counsel don mcgahn had been

talking to the mueller team... >> mueller is deliberately taking a low profile, talking to different people, building different parts of the investigation, because he knows he will have a narrow window to make his case to the american people, and it better be iron-clad. a >> this is white house that is under siege. >> narrator: even inside the white house, the president is increasingly isolated. >> an explosive new book paints an ugly picture of the president... >> narrator: senior officials have been quoted questioning his gr on reality. >> "he's an idiot. it's pointless to try to convince him of anything. he's gone off the rails. we're in crazytown." >> narrator: in the "new york times," an anonymous op-ed... >> this stunning op-ed headlined "i am a part of the resistance..." >> narrator: ...claims his staff worry about his judgment and work to thwart his whims.im >> "hilsiveness results in half-baked, ill-informed, and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back." >> narrator: and reports that rod rosensteinn the days after comey's firing... >> rosenstein talked about possibly...ar >>tor: ...raised the

question of having the president removed from office. tu ...the 25th amendment to the u.s. conson... >> rosenstein has disputed and denied that report... >> narrator:osenstein's future is in jeopardy. >> ...rod rosenstein's future up in the air, and now there are these reports today that he might be about... >> narrator: now, trump is rallyg his base ahead of the midterm elections. >> you know he's very effective on the campaign trail. >> narrator: once again on the attack. >> the obstruction is the democrats are obstructionist. we must elect more republicans so we caget the votes that we need. you're voting for which party controls congress, very important thing. >> narrator: his presidency atst ake. >> "we will impeach him, we will impeach him!"ho but i y,do you impeach somebody that hasn't done anything wrong?" o if democrats take contr the house, they are going to be a subpoenaenerating machine aimed at every federal agency and specific trump appointees, and the white house itself

and this white house is going to find itself playing permanent defense for the rest of the trump presidency. >> the stakes could be as large as whether mueller can continue. this president may feel empowered to move filly, as we know he wants to do, to either fire bob mueller or fire jeff sessions or fire rod rosenstein, or find some way to shut this investigation down. >> mueller is not going to remove the predent of the united states from office. he doesn't have that power, and i'm sure he doesn't have that ambition. the way that the president could be removed, if that's the goal, is through impeachment and conviction by the senate or through elections. and both of those involve heavy doses of the involvement of the american people, either through their representatives in congress, or through elections. and that's why, at the end of the day, it's the amican people who are going to decide trump's fate. and th's why so much is at stake in the 2018, and especially the 2020 elections.

>> a pension is a promise! >> they're paying into a pension that the state promised was going to be there. >> they have effectively raided pension funds. the ll will come due. >> many pension funds take on 'ore risk. >> t're trying to gamble their way out of the problem. t >> ghe new york money manage out of my pension! >> this is a crisis of epic proportion. >> a pension is a promise! >> narrator: next time o frontline. >> go to pbs.org/frontline for our latest reporting on the russia investigation. >> this is a pure and simple witch hunt. thank you very much. >> and as part of frontline's transparency project, see key quotes from the fi in context. >> this was the most aggressive campaign that the russians ever

moted in the history of ou elections. >> and so the stakes could not be higher. >> connect to the frontlineun coity on facebook, twitter and pbs.orfrontline. >> frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbsom station iewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation forpu ic broadcasting. major support is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more iormation is available at macfound.org. the ford foundation, workingis withnaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. at fordfoundation.org. additional support is provided by the abrams foundation, committed to excellence in journalism. the park foundation, dedicatedto eightening public awareness of critical issues. the john and helen glessner family trust. supporting trustworthy journalism that informs and inspires. the wyncote foundation.

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- [carlos] born and raised in puerto rico, carmen yulin cruersoto had an eye on leip since she waa young girl. and as mayor of san juan, when a pair of deadly hurricane devastated the caribbean... (sirens wailing) ...her mettle was tested. -[yulin] i am done being polite. i am done being politically correct. i am mad as hell. los] so how did she go from humble beginnings to leading the fight against the entire us government to help save her people and her homeland from catastrophe? and how did she clear her own path to breaking big? - and the american people are not that way.