he said he had known a guy in jail named -- wait for it -- robert mullens, the very same who testifieds had shared a secret. he had lied about rick's involvement in the murders. >> i mean, i already knew it. but to hear somebody else say it -- >> that mullens had lied. >> yeah. >> proud of what he was able to do. >> yeah. >> now the snitch on snitch story had the appeals judge's attention. >> the judge had to make a determination that the result of the trial would probably have been different. >> because mullens' story was that important in getting the conviction? >> right. >> the judge vacated rick's conviction saying the new county solicitor, the one who had replaced humphries, could refile charges if he wanted. the solicitor said he did not. so in 2013, after eight years inside, rick gagnon walked out of prison. he settled on the carolina coast now, married with children. >> just the smell of the ocean, you know, it's like freedom. it's a terrible thing that i went to prison for something i didn't do. it's changed my life. >> his old girlfriend believes her life was up-ended, too. b

joining me right now, michael zelden, a cnn legal analyst, and robert mueller's former special assistant at the department of justice and roger mullenauthor of "the last palace." michael, you first. how potentially damaging is it that senator graham would claim there is a bureaucratic coup against the president? >> honestly, i do not understand what that means. there is no bureaucratic coup against the president. the allegations that i read in the "new york times" i don't credit, i don't believe for a moment that a week on the job, rod rosenstein a lifer in the department of justice, is going to be talking about the invocation of the 25th amendment or wearing a wire to do what with respect to the president. so i just don't credit it as a story and i don't, therefore, follow from it that there is any likelihood of there being a bureaucratic bureaucratic coup. what senator graham really needs to understand and others need to understand is that rod rosenstein is the key person in the oversight of the mueller investigation. the mueller investigation is at a critical juncture now, whether they can force the president to testify via subpo