he and comey kind of work as a tag team. comey tags in, mueller tags out. mueller sets up robert mueller and associates, a consulting firm, then also takes on clients through another firm who, by the way, several attorneys from there join robert mueller on his special counsel clinton-connected attorneys, no less. right, he does the same thing. it's the revolving door, it's cashing in on public service. it's outrageous. gregg: so there is bottom line, a revolving door between government service and big business, and when you go circling around that revolving door, you are getting wealthy off it. and that's taxpayer money, right? >> that's right. one thing i want to make clear is the revolving door, most people have come to accept it. it happens in the defense department, happens in the department of energy. honestly, we like experts from the government working as the contractors, contracting with the government, but this is the department of justice and the fbi. this is the top law enforcement agency in the country. these people throw men and women in jail,

comey says the president did, put it in his memo. we do have a prior contradictory statement by comey under only to the contrary but put that aside, if we ever had a trial, i don't think we will. if he goes in and testifies to that under oath instead of this being a dispute, they can say it's perjury. if they elect to believe comey, instead of trump and they should know by now who they believe. >> you said they indicated that they already side with comey and i'm wondering what have they said to lead you to that impression? >> that's what they said, not willing to tell us what their purpose is for asking that question since they know the answer. we've been doing this a long time, jay and i, i know the purpose for it. the purpose is to write up some kind of perjury thing. that's what we mean -- there's an article in national review this week by andy mccarthy, very fine prosecutor, that explains how he -- how you put together a perjury trap and this is probably a perfect example of it. >> you said one reason why the president doesn't ne

comey and mueller were extremely close friends.y were both mentored by eric holder in the 1990s when holder was working in the clinton administration's justice department. they were junior prosecutors in washington, d.c. and virginia. they work side-by-side in early 2000's on an investigation. both attended a large number of top-secret briefings together. comey has said that robert mueller was the one person in government he could confide in. they been described as brothers in arms. how convenient for lockheed martin that just at the moment where it hides the former deputy eight attorney general which include supervision of the fbi, james comey happens to be the fbi director. what an incredible coincidence that shortly after they gave lockheed martin a $300 million deal to develop a program. what a further astonishing coincidence that they worded lockheed martin oh 1 billion-dollar contract for biometrics surveillance program called the next generation identification system. lockheed martin were extremely grateful to james comey fo

it's a federal statute. >> so you're saying that if the president did say to jim comey what jim comey says it is, that there's a crime involved? >> yes. >> but only for jim comey, not for the president of the united states? >> well, the president says he didn't say it. and the best evidence of it is comey never reported it. >> contemporaneous memos. you know how persuasive they can be in a court of law. contemporaneous. >> i'd like to see the contemporaneous -- >> you will if there's going to be discovery because of any kind of trial. i'm sure you don't want to get that far. >> no, we don't. but if we do, i would like to see if it was written after or before. i guarantee you it was written after. >> well, he says -- >> and it was written before, he's got a serious problem. he didn't report it. >> i don't see that as a big problem. >> it is a big problem. >> help me understand. >> i'm the u.s. attorney. somebody calls me up and says, fix the case. >> right. >> i write it down, and i bury it for four months. that's a felony. >> but you do not fix the case. >> yeah, but i -- the attempt

that was jim comey's mistake. i respect jim comey.nk she a good man and he made a mistake in deciding he was going to try to game and figure out what would be the at least impactful way of announcing and conducting an investigation. that robert mueller would couldn't his information in the way hi thinks is best to get to the truth. >> you're part of a election security bill. explain to me what you're trying to get past. we have heard ambiguity about who attacked us and whether or not the russians did it and all of that good stuff, but tom rooney and i have put forward a bill that would be a small part of the overall effort of providing the resources and providing the kinds of communication and propagation of best practices that would allow us to have more kcompetence tha we do today in the security of knowing that the russians couldn't do what they did to us in november of 19 2016. and give us confidence that our elections are not hackable. >> i do not believe the russians have been accused of swaying the election. thank you for being

i hired comey.completely baffled by the kind of scoundrel he's turned out to be. >> are you any closer to having a deal with mueller to sit down? >> no. haven't heard from him in a week. >> how do you interpret that? >> i think they're waiting for the -- i hate to bring up the case. i think they're waiting for the manafort case. i think they feel if they win, they're going to be empowered. if they lose -- and i don't know what -- it doesn't have anything to do with us. we're trying to tell them, i don't care what happens with manafort. the one thing that proves is you don't know anything about us. manafort -- the whole trial, nothing about trump. >> so once this is done, now they're going into their closing arguments. one way or another you'll see if it's about that or not. >> one way or another, it's a terrible test. it doesn't matter. if they convict, they acquit, hung jury. >> you're bringing it up. i don't know that -- >> it doesn't matter. >> i'm not saying it does. i'm saying you put it out th

did his relationship with comey help?> we are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in these contracts. even $1 billion. it is strange to think that robert mueller did not sign off on this. >> sean: this would be for the fbi. peter, let's bring you in and get some context here. again, maybe it is not nefarious at all. i don't know. that is an insane amount of money. two guys, did they both sign off on this? >> yeah. if you are the fbi director, say you are robert mueller or james comey and you have major intelligence contracts, as the fbi director, you are going to be aware of and sign off on those contracts. the problem is that some of these contracts are competitive, but some of them are noncompete. even those that are competitive contracts, you get complaints, for example, ibm complained about the lockheed martin contract, the bidding process and how that was carried forward. it is a classic example of a crony capitalism. as much as people might want to thank that when you walk into the j. edgar hoover building

comey and people who are keeping score, comey is a republican.y times have people told the media, mueller is a republican, comey is a republican, and they question the president! okay, you got a republican. by the way, for the media, most of the people that the president is looking at are white. i know that's very important to you. fired at the recommendation of withe absconded government documents when he left. his security clearance should be pulled. andrew mccabe is under criminal investigation, the number two from the fbi. never before in history, media, his security clearance should be pulled! peter strzok was dressed fired, the guy in charge of the investigations, his security clearance should be pulled! james clapper committed perjury. he lied to the american people and senator wyden and that committee, a long time ago, his security clearance should have been pulled.d. bruce ohr, another one. pulled! sally yates, another one, not just because the president has a problem with democrats or liberals, he has a problem with these people. we hav

comey because of his russia investigation? >> i just wants somebody that's competent. i am a big fan of the fbi. i love the fbi. >> are you a fan of him taking up the investigation? >> i think that -- about the hillary clinton investigation? >> no, about the russia investigation. >> let me tell you. as far as i'm concerned, i want that thing to be absolutely done properly. when i did this now, i said, i probably maybe will confuse people. maybe i'll expand that. you know, i'll lengthen the time because it should be over w. it should have been over with a long time ago because all it is is an excuse. but i said to myself i might even lengthen out the investigation. but i have to do the right thing for the american people. he's the wrong man for that position. >> joining us now for legal analysis of what you just heard is former federal prosecutor joyce vance. and david fromm and john harwood. and joyce vance, to the legal theory that we seem to be hearing from rudy giuliani and possibly it is what we will eventually hear from the president, that moment could not be obst

comey and the corroborating witnesses for comey. well, it's taken them a little while to get all the way through this list, but the only one still there is david bowditch, the one at the bottom there, he had been the number three official at the fbi, he had been the associate fbi director, h s he'sed up to be number two, not number three. he's apparent ly the one who personally dreked today that counter intelligence chief peter strzok be fired even though it was decided he should be kept on. bowdich is the only one left for of all of the corroborating witnesses for james comey's testimony. james comey's testimony that the president leaned on him to shut down an open fbi investigation into the national security adviser. and with all of them, almost all of them all picked off now, who is going to back up james comey? if the president leaning on the fbi director about that investigation is itself a matter of personal criminal liability for the president when it comes to obstruction of justice, who is going tobacco mee back come? if all

comey and the corroborating witnesses for comey. well, it has taken them a little while to get through this list. the only one still will is david bowdich. he had been the number three. now he's moved up to be number two. not number three. he is the one who personally directed today that counter intelligence chief peter strzok be fired even though it was decided that he should be kept on. bowdich is the only one left for all the krob rating witnesses. james comey's testimony that the president leaned on him to shut down an open fbi investigation into the national security adviser. who will back up james comey? if the president leaning on the fbi director is itself a matter of personal criminal high built for the president when it comes to obstruction of justice, who is it now? once you get rid of the witnesses, then you can tell any story you want about what happened. if all the krob rating witnesses have been picked off and blown up, who is left to say what happened there at all? who is left to say otherwise now? >> flynn, the pres

and it goes to why the president fired james comey. earlier today i had a conversation with omarosa manigault newman about the tlers holt interview. here's what she told me. >> i want to talk about the lester holt interview where you said that the team prepared him well. then he went into the interview and he said what a lot of people believe to be the truth, that he fired jim comey over russia. so was he being prepped to lie? >> he was being prepped by hope hicks and the coms team to say that the d.o.j. had come up with this memo so that they could justify the firing of comey. so -- >> you were -- >> that was definitely hope hicks, press secretary kind of thing. i was really, really surprised that he would implicate himself. >> phil, i don't know what to make of that because there are a number of things in that book that seem to be offhand comments and then we heard tape to back them up. this becomes interesting for the special counsel or anyone else to say does omarosa know the president was being coached to lie in that interview wit

he said then trump asked comey to "give flynn a break."mp's conversation with comey which took place a day after flynn was fired has been a crucial part of the special counsel's inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice by asking the fbi to kill the active investigation into his former national security adviser. now guess what? giuliani's changed his story. a month after he confirmed that the president did discuss flynn with comey giuliani is now changing his story. he's saying yesterday the subject in that conversation of flynn never came up. let's watch. >> what happened in that conversation with comey about michael flynn? what exactly did president trump say? >> there was no conversation about michael flynn. >> so you're saying that president trump and james comey never discussed michael flynn. >> that is what he will testify to if he's asked that question. they already know that. so why are they asking us for him to repeat what they already know under oath? >> and you're also saying that a month ago you didn't tell abc news

comey says the president did. he put it in his memo.oes in and testifies to that under oath, instead of just being a dispute, they can say it is perjury. if they elect to believe comey, instead of trump. >> cnn white house correspondent boris sanchez joins us live from new jersey, where the president is spending his holiday. boris this is a big u-turn. giuliani had previously said the exact opposite, right? >> that's right, ana. giuliani maintains this is not a contradiction, but let's recall in july on abc news, he said that president trump asked james comey to cut michael flynn some slack, to give him a break, so to speak, something he says that he was asked to do many times as a prosecutor. he argues that comey should have taken him into consideration but not seen it as a directive and that is why he says president trump did not attempt to obstruct justice. you don't have to take my word for it. this is video from rudy giuliani back in july. listen to this. >> how is he a good witness for the president if he's saying the president wa

integrity, comey, i don't remember him telling this.hen under comey, best friend forever, bff robert mueller, granted a huge boondoggle project that some see for what it is. after comey took the reins, robert mueller cashed in big-time himself, started a consulting firm where he made millions of dollars representing clients he had previously doled out contracts to as the fbi director. according to this book, two of mueller's former contractors were facebook and apple. guess what? they are cooperating with the robert mueller investigation. can you say "conflict of interest"? if you think that sounds sketchy, corrupt, and a little financial incestuous behavior here, it is because it is. government officials using their status, leverage it -- and by the way, in all fairness, professional background experience, all while acting like irreproachable super patriots. remember, they knew better than us who to elect in 2016. we reached out to mueller and comey, and they did not respond. shocking. we will cover the revolving door in it detail. fir

instead with comey. instead with comey. this might explain the concern on the part of the trust me legal team. >> my white house counsel came to me. they had i believe two meetings. and we ultimately fired, but we fired for a different reason. >> you're talking about general flynn? >> general flynn, yes. >> because of lying to the vice president? >> yeah, but everything plays in. everything plays into it. but we fired him because he said something to the vice president that was not so. >> did you at any time urge former fbi director james comey in any way, shape, or form to close or back down the investigation into michael flynn? and also -- >> no. >> i feel badly for general flynn. he's lost his house. he's lost his life. some people say he lied and some people say he didn't lie. really it turned out maybe he didn't lie. >> and here now, donald trump on james comey. >> all i want is for comey to be honest and i hope he will be and i'm sure he will be, i hope. he's a show boat. he's a grandstander. the f

comey knows the dossier is phony maria: right. >> so comey starts the investigation, and then eventually mueller takes over. maria: so what are you going to do now if john brennan sues you, sues the president? that's what he said on meet the press this morning, that he's going to come up with a legal pushback for losing the security clearance and he says he wants to make sure nobody else loses the security clearance. >> well then we take his deposition right away as the plaintiffs he would have to go first and i would, i mean i'd volunteer to do that case for the president. i'd love to have brennan under oath for i don't know how many days two or three days? we'll find out about brennan and we'll find out what a terrible job he did going back to being the head of mission and we can see what he did or said about benghazi. maria: or supporting comey. >> i don't know if i'll go back that far, anybody out there ever vote for a communist? maria: what are you going to do, rudy? at the end of the day -- >> how do you become cia director if in the midst of the cold war you voted for a communist?

he says so if i say something that he, comey, and he, comey, says something and it is my word against his and he's best friends with mueller, so mueller might say, well, i believe comey. and even if i'm telling the truth, that makes me a liar, that's no good. now, ken, the don mcgahn reporting, as i say, interests me most when it comes to the possibility that don mcgahn might be able to change the comey versus trump story from comey's word versus trump's word to trump's word versus comey's word plus possibly something from don mcgahn. >> 100%. but first a word about that tweet. it is inconsistent with the facts and inconsistent with american values. that's not a partisan statement. robert mueller volunteered for vietnam, was wounded in combat, led the fbi after 9/11. there are prosecutor ons that team with sterling records. got so far into their skin they threatened to kill him. he had 24/7 security for a year. these are public servants who have given over their careers to serving the american public and bringing people to justice. donald trump may not like what they are doing, but he

"very concerned about the comey hearing, afraid we will be exposed." okay.irewalls, holding, afraid we are going to be exposed, i thought the whole mueller thing was not supposed to have foreign nationals trying to influence our elections. now i've got christopher steele spreading his lies and propaganda vis-a-vis fusion gps to the gullible media and he knows and testifies under oath, he doesn't even believe his own dossier come with a b.s. they are paddling most of the american people. >> he is not only a foreign national, he is a foreigner on the a fbi's bankroll and payroll and of hillary clinton's payrol payroll. sara's reporting is right. he fears the senate intelligence committee, he fears the comey, he fears at senator grassley in particular, that he's going to be implicated and posted and exposed forxp his illegal behavior. have here handwritten notes in the handwriting of bruce ohr. march 15th, he writes, "special counsel right to question and u.k."? he doesn't want to be forced to answer questions under oath. on that same day he says, , he urges br

comey says he did. if he goes in and testifies under oath, instead of this being a dispute, they can say it is perjury. if they elect to believe comey with what trump. >> contrast that to what he told abc in july. >> how is he a good witness for the president if the president was asking him or directing him to let the michael flynn go. >> he didn't say that. he said can you give him a break. >> which is it? the president never asked him that or did he? the president told him during that meeting, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. to letting glieflynn go. he is a good guy. >>> president trump is slamming his attorney general jeff sessions again. the president tweeting our ag is scared stiff and missing in action. the president also criticizes sessions for failing on acting on meetings with bruce steele and ohr. ohr's wife worked for fusion gps. >>> serious concerns about security in the white house now we know former aide omarosa manigault newman was able to sneak a recording device in

i said that is what comey says. the reality is comey in some ways ends up being a good witness for us. >> how is he a good witness for the president if he's saying the president was asking him, directing him, in his words, to let the michael flynn investigation go? >> he didn't direct him to do that. what he said to him was can you give him a break? >> so john heilemann, what are we to make of that? is rudy giuliani making it up as he goes along? is he purposefully lying? does he have early on set of dementia? how does he go from yesterday saying he never asked that question to us of course having a tape where clearly a couple weeks ago he said that's precisely what the president said? >> i don't want to rule out early on set, but the first option seems to be obviously the right one. giuliani, as i said before, his credibility is basically zero on pretty much everything at this point because he's contradicted himself over and over and over again. but we are now veering into a new terrain in terms of the kind of dece

if they elect to believe comey instead of trump. >> you will recall however james comey testified under president had asked him to see his way clear of inv investigating flynn and oh, yeah, last month, giuliani confirmed that this happened. >> how is he a good witness for the president if he is saying that the president is asking him and directing him in his words to let the michael flynn investigation go. >> he did not say that. what he said is that -- >> comey says that he took it as direction. >> well, that is okay, because by that time, he had been fired and he said a lot of things that turned out to be untrue. the reality is that as a prosecutor, i was told that many times, can you give the man a break either by the lawyers or the relatives or friends, and you take it into consideration, but that can doesn't determine not going forward wit. >> so just to be clear. last month giuliani said quote, what he, president trump, said to him, james comey, can you give the guy, michael flynn a break. and today, the story is that the two never even talked about flynn. the cnn white house corr

and i did a great service to country by firing james comey. and who's lied more than comey? comey lied a tremendous amount. >> the president may soon hear about the next step in the investigation of his former personal lawyer michael cohen. federal prosecutors now have access to everything they can use from that fbi raid of cohen's home, office, and hotel room back in april. for months, as you may know, an independent lawyer, a so-called special master who happens to be a former federal judge, reviewed all the seized boxes of documents and files to decide what should be off-limits in the investigation. her review is now complete, which means it's now up to prosecutors to decide whether they will bring charges. it's a lot to get to. so we will with our lead-off panel on a thursday night. mimi roca is back with us, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york. these days at the pace university school of law. lisa larabek, national politics reporter for the associated press. michael crowley returns as well, national security editor and senior foreign aff

that was james comey. president has had a number of opportunities to go under oath, to go to bob mueller. he's even been given the questions, and he won't go in. giuliani is a lawyer. he's got a tough client. i expect him to continue to be inconsistent. >> in a court of law, or before a grand jury, if you have james comey, a former fbi director who kept contemporaneous note, the famous memos, who apparently told colleagues immediately after that meeting, all the things you do to corroborate your version of events, versus a president whose lawyer and in his tweets has changed his story. how does a grand jury, in your experience, weigh those two against each other? >> jurors are told all the time you can rely on a single witness' testimony if you believe that witness. particularly if there's contemporaneous notes, if other witnesses say that person told them that this was concerning to them. i think comey has a lot of credibility here. in our investigation, we asked all the people who had ever worked with co

ahead of comey's upcoming hearing. you have christopher steele worried about being exposed and for good reason. he worked on hillary clinton op research team in 2016 and put together the clinton bought and paid for dirty russian dossier full of russian lies, salacious, unverified, uncooperated and everyone steele himself wouldn't stand by it. under oath in great britain. he said well, it may not be true at all. it's raw intelligence. it's christopher steele who used bruce ohr to spread propaganda throughout the highest level of the government and to you, the american people. thanks to the reporting also tonight from catherine herridge we know christopher steele who was leaking the contents of his phony dossier to your gullible news media in this country in the fall of 2016. all at the behest and request of fusion g.p.s. by the way who was paid by hillary clinton and the d.n.c. we now know fusion g.p.s., oh, remember the russian lawyer in the infamous trump tower meeting? she was paying fusion g.p.s. don't forget simpso

comey says the president did. he put it in his memo. if he testifies to that under oath instead of this being a dispute they can say it is perjury if they elect to believe comey instead of trump. >> so why would robert mueller think the president asked comey to go easy on flynn? not only did comey testify to this under oath, but just last month giuliani himself said that is exactly what the president did. >> how is he a good witness for the president if he is saying that the president was directing him in his words to let the michael flynn investigation go? >> he didn't direct him to do that. >> comey says he took it as direction. >> taking it that way. by that time he had been fired and said a lot of other things some of which turned out to be true. the reality is as a prosecutor i was told that many times. can you give the man a break either by his lawyers, relatives, friends? you take that into consideration. that doesn't determine not going forward with it. >> you heard that, right? giuliani clearly saying last month the president a

comey says the president did. he put it in his memo. testifies to that under oath instead of just being a dispute, they can say it's perjury if they elect to believe comey inside of trump. >> so that's -- that can be seen in two ways, one another argument against the sit-down with mueller because he would call it a perjury trap. two, if the president does sit for the interview, it will be comey's word on this versus the president's word on this. comey has this contemporaneous memo, which a lot of legal minds say holds a lot of weight to have a contemporaneous memo. would it here? >> it would. especially if you look at the surrounding circumstances where there does appear to be the president being very concerned about the well being and future legal problems of general flynn. i still -- perjury trap, i think is not a useful phrase. no prosecutor is going to bring a case simply because it's one person against the other. remember, there's not going to be any case at all because the president can't be indicted in any case. but it's not just

comey says he did. if he goes in and testifies under oath, instead of this being a dispute, they can say it is perjury. if they elect to believe comey instead of trump. >> contrast that to what he told abc in july. >> how is he a good witness for the president if the president was asking him or directing him to let the michael flynn go. >> he didn't say that. he said can you give him a break. >> can you give him a break? which is it? the president never asked comey to give him a break or he did? last june, the former fbi director told the president -- told him during that meeting, i hope you can see your way clear to letting this go. to letting flynn go. he is a good guy. i hope you can let this go. >>> serious concerns in the white house now we know former aide omarosa manigault newman was able to sneak a recording device into the situation room. omarosa appeared on "meet the press." she claims the recording you are about to hear is chief of staff john kelly firing her last december. >> i think it is i

he went from talking about always planning on firing comey. about how he thinks about russia. that became a predicate for the discussion about how he fired comey over the russia investigation. two minutes lair in the interview he went on for a minute plus about how he wanted the investigation to go forward. and how anybody if anybody in the campaign was doing something wrong they should be punished for it. i think the totality of the interview is really where his mind was. the sound bite marketed really was a predicate for a lot of bad things to come. >> a couple poinlts. they are different subjects. why he fired comey and the mueller investigation. second of all he said it. the story that the white house put out was him firing comey had nothing to do with russia. and he said the opposite. yes, you're right. the totality of the interview there is double speak. that doesn't take away his accountability for contradicting himself. fudging the tame. >> it is holt is and his team and every media organization used that brief sound bite. out of conte

>> he threatened comey. he said, you know, you have to watch out. he insinuated that there might be tapings. >> she said this about the interview that president trump gave to msnbc news last year in which she discussed the firing. >> he was being prepped by hope hi hi hicks and thecomes team to say that the doj had come up with this memo so they could justify the fire thing of comey. >> and you were in on it, too? >> that is definitely a hope hicks' press secretary type of thing. >> so if thecomes team prepped him to lie to lester holt -- >> they prepped him everyday. >> did you ask the question why we are lying? >> all the time. >> the answer was? >> this is how they do it. this is the trump administration. >> this is her assessment of the president's ability to do his job. >> the book is called "unhinged" and who does that refer to? >> donald j. trump. >> do you think he is mentally competent? >> i don't think he is fit. as we heard, he does not even know what is happening in the white house. >> that was part of the media tour today. the explosive

to comey anything about flynn. says, and adds this at the very end, comey says he told me to see if i could give him a break, basically. so we have three defenses to that. under article ii of the constitution, you can't really question why the president would say something like that. number two, what he was saying is perfectly justifiable. he didn't say, you must, you have to, i'll fire you if you don't. he said, consider it. number three, he never said it. lawyers argue like this. we call it arguing in the alternative. >> number four, you can say whatever you want on television. you can say whatever you want on television, but if you're in a court of law or in a negotiation with a man who has the power of the attorney general of the united states, which is what bob mueller has, that's all over the map crazy stuff. >> if rudy giuliani is a mirror of his client, and i think it's true that the kind of lack of discipline and being all over the map is the way donald trump would also answer these questions, you can see