saying he needed the ultimate responsibility for matters in the doj.ate stopped him right then and said they wouldn't even hold a hearing until he committed to more independence. >> members of the judiciary committee greeted richardson with smiles and handshakes, but the friendly greeting was deceptive. >> we have to create the appearance of objectivity and fairness in this investigation. >> whether he had an independent prosecutor or not, but who would buy it? >> no more hearings will be held until richardson names a special prosecutor acceptable to the committee with guidelines guaranteeing his independence. >> that was key, pushing richardson to commit to, one, appointing that special prosecutor, archibald cox, and, two, respecting his independence. >> mr. cox will have full independence, as far as i'm concerned. he has been given or will be given upon his appointment full authority to investigate all aspects of the watergate cases. >> what if inen senator bird's words this trail leads into the oval office? >> as i replied then, the trail should be

in august of 2016, bruce ohr warns everybody, all the peopled ipeople upper echelon ad doj. >> and dojns them hillary clinton paid for this biased and christopher steele hates trump. >> right. >> sean: they knew it's paid for by hillary clinton and do anything to stop donald trump. they should have dropped it therefore in the trash can. they didn't. they thought it was gold. we don't care if it's phony or not. we will use it as a pretext to frame donald trump. >> sean: russian lies paid for. >> right. >> sean: who does bruce ohr tell? >> now confirmed i have been able to confirm as well much of his deposition testimony, he implicates two top officials at the department of justice who are now on the special counsel's team of artisans and two others at the fbi who are on it who have since left. have you often asked me why isn't mueller investigating the fbi and doj for hillary russian collusion? i think we now know the answer, four people on his own panel were implicated. >> sean: including one andrew weissmann we talk about all the time. >> andrew weissmann and of course the lisa page a

we now have new information tonight, mueller and his team, they knew, like the fbi and the doj, that dossier was dirty from day one and they still used it in the fisa warrant. gregg jarrett with new, explosive details straight ahead. ♪ ♪ [peaceful acoustic guitar] (male announcer) we know these memories will last longer than the wrapping paper. we know there's some things you just can't put a bow on. we know the best gift of all is still out there. we know the great outdoors. we love the great outdoors. bass pro shops and cabela's-- where incredible selection, great people, and an experience like no other all come together. we were paying an arm and a leg for postage. i remember setting up shipstation. one or two clicks and everything was up and running. i was printing out labels and saving money. shipstation saves us so much time. it makes it really easy and seamless. pick an order, print everything you need, slap the label onto the box, and it's ready to go. our costs for shipping were cut in half. just like that. shipstation. the #1 choice of online sellers. go to shipstation.com/

helping to later protect how the doj ran the watergate probe. book, he recounts how behind the scenes he cited his commitment that had been made to the senate. now that's the precedence that hanged over next week's hearing because when he demanded richardson fire the prosecutor, richardson had two reasons to stand up to nixon. one, he thought that order was wrong but that's always a debatable thing between a president and an attorney general. more importantly, two, richardson already pledged to the senate that kind of order was wrong and that was not debatable. it was black and white and under oath. so he famously quit in protest setting off the constitutional crisis of nixon's saturday night massacre. >> my only single most important commitment to this objective was my commitment to the independence of the special prosecutor. i could not be faithful to this commitment and the curtailment of his authority. >> the country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious constitutional crisis in it's history. >> many remember that. now some

>> on the doj side, within the recent months, we have messages from people inside the doj who basically is a major concern. i don't think it is just politics. we are talking about issues that had dated back to the obama administration. >> it is important to say it there has not been any solid evidence of anything happening. the doj sources told us a month or so ago to step back and think if while way and cte have 5g networks in 10 years time, it would be very easy to collect information about what is going back and forth between those networks. >> is this a helpful lever to be and putin trade talks the chinese under more pressure to make a deal? >> this morning, there was news that chinahis idea has pledged to buy a trillion dollars of extra goods. i am not sure what those goods would be. it shows that maybe they are giving way. maybe donald trump's strategy was aggressive. as we arethis coming going into tech earning season. we are looking at chipmakers and suppliers to smartphones. the iphone. while weight is a smartphone maker as well. what sort of arrangements are we expecting acros

to somebody who is not currently employed at the doj? acting ag whitaker reveals federal prosecutors still investigating claims of gop misconduct. >> it's an incredibly distressing piece of news. the story, and we get it from the person on the other end of the conversation, former attorney general ed meese, says he had lunch with acting attorney general whitaker and during that lunch, whitaker disclosed to him details of the ongoing doj investigation that involves hillary clinton's e-mails, whatever mismash former attorney general sessions managed to put together. this is ethically inappropriate, and the acting attorney general should immediately be referred to opr, the office inside of doj that looks into whether or not prosecutors violate their ethical obligations. there is an even more sinister twist to those -- to this, though, and it would depend upon the content. we don't have any reason to believe he would have disclosed information but doing that would be a criminal violation that would put this into the inspector general's lens.

things,the doj side of certainly in recent months we got messages from people inside the doj who said. i don't think it's just politics. arey: and in some cases we talking about issues that dated back to the obama administration. there has never been any solid evidence of something sources toldt doj us a month ago to step back and cte --if while way and it would be very easy to collect information about what's going back and forth. emily: at the same time, isn't this a helpful lever to be doesn'tin trade talks, it put the chinese under more pressure to make a deal? there washis morning, news that bloomberg reported about this idea of china's pledge to buy trillions of dollars of extra goods. i'm not sure what those goods would be, that's a lot of money. but it shows that maybe they are giving way and may donald trumps negotiating strategy -- maybe he's piling on. emily: all of this coming up into tech earnings season. the have been looking at chipmakers and suppliers to smartphones, the iphone. what sort of earnings results are we expecting across the board, given the broader politica

and h even oversaw the robert mueller guy that were focused on once before when he was head of the doj criminal division. if there's any question about his independence, well, that wa put to rest at today's hearing. >> what would be your breaking point? what would you pick up and leave . when is your moment when the president president asking to d something that you think is inconsistent with your oath. >> i want to anything i think i wrong and i will not be bullied anto doing anything i think is wrong. by anybody, whether it be editorial boards, congress, or the president. i'm going to do what i think is right. >> as for the democratic drumbeat that trump only select people he can control and he essentially agreed to i don't know some sort of loyalty pledge . >> president trump has sought n assurances, promises, or commitments from me up any kind either express or implied, and have not given him any other than that i would run the department with professionalism and integrity. >> he testified he wants muelle to complete his probe and has confidence and molars professionalism. that was

how can we better assist between the doj and state officials in this area? >> again, this is not an area of expertise that i have right now, but i would imagine that technical support and grants are probably the most effective means for the federal government to assist. >> okay. very good. well, i appreciate that so much. i've just got a little bit of time left. i do want to go back to the issue that's been brought up many times over about our border security. i as well agree that there are many ways that we can use to secure our border, whether it's through technology, whether it's through a physical barrier. understanding, as has been rightly pointed out, that a number of the interdictions of drugs crossing the border are actually done at those ports of entry, however, i think there are a lot of families that are very concerned about the fentanyl that might be coming across those -- those areas that are not watched. >> right. >> so families that have lost their loved ones i think it doesn't matter what percentage is coming through a port of entry or elsewh

the doj also will need to tackle the unauthorized leaks. we now know that james baker is already facing a criminal investigation tonight over this charge but so, too are we going to look ought john brennan and james clapper and what about susan rice and samantha powers. should they be investigated over the marv amounts of names that they unhavocked while serving in the final year of the obama administration. and because of james comey's biased and inhe want investigation of hillary clinton exoneration before investigation obvious violation of the espionage act, mr. barr must also revisit hillary clinton's various driment. like oh e the deleting your emails and hard drive and washing it with bleach bit and busts up devices and ripping out sim cards. we will show you how mr. barr should tackle that in tomorrow night's monologue. get back to barr's testimony on capitol hill earlier today in a concerning statement he actually said that the mueller investigation is not a witch-hunt. i strongly disagree. take a look. >> you say you have known mue

he's meeting, taking custody of this information, feeding it directly into the fbi and doj.re, that now doj's going to take seriously lying into congress, obstructing a congressional information. they need to -- congressional investigation. they need to start with themselves. they need to start with the former leadership of the department of justice and fbi. if i were them, if you want to see lying to congress, i would start with strong and page, two of the investigators who were fired, who hated trump, and i would also go after the top leadership of the fbi and doj at the time. maria: but isn't it true that two of the members from the fbi who were involved in this counterintelligence investigation into trump based on unverified and salacious information from this dossier, now those two people work for robert mueller? >> oh, yes, maria, very good point that the media continues to ignore. so not only is it two of -- first of all, it was four. of two got fired. but one of them is actually the top person, the number two, the deputy -- mueller's deputy that the press and the lef

aside from how you feel about his politics and his past policies, what does he do for the doj?ause lindsey graham and others have pointed out that they have a real morale problem there right now, and they do seem to be going in a few different directions. >> yeah, and that was one of the themes that came up quite a bit today. in fact, senator dick durbin, one of the top democrats there the senate, he started out by saying i find you to be a very rational person, and then he said why in the world would you want this job? and bull barr said, you know what? when they came to me, i didn't want it. i actually gave them names of other people. but i do believe and i do care so deeply about the justice department that i can help lead them through this, and i'm only doing it because i think i can actually help. senator cornyn asked him about trying to make sure that the public has confidence again in doj and fbi, and he said that will be one of the key things he does, restoring both internal and external confidence in those bodies. kennedy: well, we'll see if he's going to come back and

tried to get barr to vow to recuse himself from oversight of the mueller probe if the staff at the doj suggests he do so. >> so will you commit, if confirmed, to both seeking and following the advice of the department of the career ethics officials as to whether you must recuse from the special counsel's investigation? >> i will seek the advice of the career ethics personnel, but under the regulations, i make the decision as the head of the agency as to my own recusal. so i certainly would consult with them and at the end of the day, i would make a decision in good faith based on the laws and the facts that are evident at that time. >> laura: i'm sorry, we are all sitting here in the studio. he reminds me so much of justice scalia, his inflection, the way he reacts to questions. it just brought it back. it was odd. anyway, it's clear that barr his own man. contrary to some other nasty tweets, tweets from the right like this. "i don't trust barr. he seems awfully cozy with the many of the people surrounding the whole spygate scandal." i get the concern. all i can say is that i have know

we are getting signs out of doj. that doesn't always mean doj is correct.we're reading tea leaves, you wouldn't bet your retirement one way or the other based on what the tea leaves tell you. i think with respect to this postponement of gates' sentencing, it could mean that mueller has 60 more days to go. but remember, the southern district of new york has a new investigation now into the trump inaugural committee. rick gates worked on that inaugural committee. bob mueller could be done tomorrow, but rick gates' sentencing has to be postponed because he's still a cooperating witness in that investigation that only started in the last few months. with respect to this new piece of information, you can read it one way or the other. i think the best thing to do is be cautious and wait 'til the end. >> chuck rosenberg who also joins us, chuck, we did learn the grand jury was extended for six months. that may mean something, may mean not, but it certainly means their work is not deemed to be done. and now because we're grasping at everything we get, this new figu

outside of doj, he was the general counsel with the cia. that's how he met bush 41. clerk. he's worked in private practice. he's been the senior vice president, general counsel, gte. he's lived a consequential life, general counsel for verizon. he live add life that i think has been honorable and noteworthy and accomplished. i want to thank you for being willing to take this task on. we've got a lot of problems at the department of justice. i think morale is low. we need to change that. so i look forward to this hearing. you will be challenged. you should be challenged. the memo. they'll be a lot of talk about it. as there should be. i want to let you know, mr. barr, we appreciate you stepping up at a time when the country needs somebody of your background and your temperament to be in charge of the rule of law. i turn it over to senator feinstein. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i think we can work productively together. and senator grassley, i want to thank you for the time we worked together. it really was a pleasure. i had an opportunity to get to know you as the fin

will you entertain those conversations from at doj? >> i've looked through the existing regime. and my instinct is to keep it, maybe even tighten it up a little bit more. i remember when george w. bush's administration was coming in, my advice was start tight and then as you realize who has judgment and so forth, you can go back to -- >> they went the other way and it was a bad day for attorney general gonzales in the hearing room when that was brought to his attention. what is your understanding right now of who at the department of justice is authorized to have communications with the white house regarding -- >> it depends -- it depends what it is. on criminal matters i would just have the ag and the deputy. >> and what do you think the rule is now in the department? >> i think that's what it is. >> okay. so if the reports are true that as chief of staff, mr. whitaker was involved in conversations with the white house about bringing criminal investigations against the president's political enemies, that would not be consistent with y

and the doj -- and i'll give you a chance to respond. the doj itself has said mandated implicit racial bias training, and i hope that's something you'll agree to do, but this is the thing i'll conclude on. we live on a planet earth where you can tell the most about a nation by who they incarcerate. in turkey, they incarcerate journalists. thank god they don't do that here. in russia, they incarcerate political opponents. i'm glad we don't do that, even with chants of lock her up. but you go into the american prisons and you see the most vulnerable people. you see overstigmatized mentally ill people clogging our system. you see overstigmatized addicted people clogging our system. you see a system that treats you better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. you see disproportion naltly overwhelmingly for drug crimes african-americans and latinos being incarcerated. you haven't met with me yet. you've given that courtesy to others. would you please meet with me in my office so we can have a heart to heart on the urgenc

will you entertain those conversations from at the doj? >> i have looked through the existing regime and my instinct is to keep it. maybe even tighten it up a little bit. i remember when george w. bush's in this region was command, my advice was to start tate and as you realize who has a judgment and so forth you can go back -- >> they went the other way and it was a bad day for attorney general gonzales and the hearing room when that was brought to his attention. what is your understanding right now of who at the department of justice is authorized to have communications with the white house? >> it depends what it is. on criminal matters, i would just have the ag and the deputy. >> what do you think the rule is now in the department? >> i think that's what it is. >> okay. so, if the reports are true that, as chief of staff, mr. mr. whitaker was involved in conversations with the white house about bringing criminal investigations against the president's political enemies, that would not be consistent with your understanding of that policy.

doj, we are talking about election fraud not voter fraud. the justice department did not appear to take any action. and now that that congressional races still being decided, one thing the department of justice did manage to do in north carolina with the request that north carolina turn over millions of voting records to immigration and customs enforcement i.c.e. and apparently it's part of a needle in the haystack effort to prosecute voting by noncitizens. if confirmed will you continue to put resources into this kind of effort to prosecute voting by noncitizens, which the evidence is very clear that it's not this kind of voter fraud going on in spite that the president said there was some i don't know 3 million people who were not supposed about, voting. would you continue to expend resources on requiring turning over of millions of voter records? to be turned over to i.c.e.? >> i don't know what they -- the predicate for looking into that is. >> it was to get voter fraud which according to the president it's going on in a massive way but

i know they are currently under review by doj. are you taking into account the potential negative impact on ending these consent decrees without an alternative in place? >> mr. chairman, we have, as you correctly stated, we have begun a review of all of the outstanding, about 1300 consent decrees, some of which go back, are 100 years old. we are systematically meeting, of course, both the paramount consent decrees dealing with theatrical movie distribution and the bmi dealing with music has probably taken the greatest level of our resources. we have begun meeting with every interested party from wine shops and restaurant owners to hotel owners to broadcasters and musicians and songwriters. we will make a public announcement for greater public comment, then we will determine. we have not made any conclusions of what the outcome of that review shall be, but we will be carefully looking at that and consulting with you consistent with the music modernization act as well as just your oversight role in how we proceed with that. >> befor

that's why it's interesting that senator whitehouse said in a tweet today, forget about the doj. take this right to the courts. the truth is, the supreme court has not ruled, has not taken up this issue and ruled definitively. a lot of legal scholars say the only remedy within the constitution for a sitting president is impeachment. the truth is, the courts haven't ruled. maybe there's an opening there and maybe if democrats have their way, they sidestep the doj. >> thank you very much. good work. >>> breaking tonight, plans for a second summit between president trump and the north korean dictator kim jong-un. let's go live to pamela brown. in the midst of this new buzzfeed report, the government shutdown, the administration is now eager to tout this second summit. >> reporter: that's right. the white house saying today that the second summit with kim jong-un and president trump is planned to happen late february. this news following a nearly two hour meeting today between president trump and north korea's envoy. this happened amidst the government shutdown with no end in sight.

while i applaud the doj and assistant attorney general, efforts reviewing anti-trust consent decrees i am concerned of negative effects to the music industry if those consent decrees are terminated, and i'll repeat that, if they are terminated without an alternative in place. it is logistically difficult to identify rights for millions of songs, each with multiple copyright holders. accordingly, performance rights organization or p.r.o.s. were developed long ago to bundle composition licenses and sell them to music buyers at blanket rates. under modern anti-trust analysis, such coordination might be justifiable under the supreme court's, i quote, rule of reason, end quote, if efficiencies increase consumer welfare. however, in the early part of the 20th century, the government considered its pro se illegal. in 1941, doj sued the first p.r.o.s, the american society of composers, authors, and publishers, and broadcast music, inc., pmi. the two pros entered into consent decrees still in existence today that allow them to operate by impose conditions designed to prevent abuse. these cond

i know that they are currently under review by doj. are you taking into account the potentially negative impact on ending these consent degrees without an alternative in place. stated,u have correctly we have begun review of all the outstanding, about 1300 consent degrees some of which go back hundreds of years old. meetingystematically the paramount consent decrees doing with theatrical music dissolution hand the ones dealing with music and it's probably taken greatest level of the our resources. we have begun meeting with every interested party from wine shops restaurant owners, broadcasters, , musicians, songwriters, we will make a public announcement for greater public comment and then will determine. we have not made any conclusions of the review but we will be carefully looking at that and consulting with you consistent with the music modernization act as well as your oversight role in how we proceed. >> before you would terminate these decrees would you be willing to work with congress, this committee, and place a commissioner t

we're going to have plenty of people that actually the doj already knows about will have to make it more public if they fail to investigate this. i understand today from the acting attorney general's comments that he's anxious toan get these inquiries and helptt take them seriously. i'm happy to be hear about thatt we'll be glad to oblige them with plenty of names of people who have lied to congress. >> sean: if we have equal justice and equal application of our laws, all those people should get the storm/manafort/cohen treatment, right? if it's fair, equally applied? >> all of this dates back to clinton opposition research fed into the fbi to start this investigation. and so, you know, we have a whole bunch of work to do. republicans working with the intelligence committee, judiciary committee, and the oversight committee, we're going to continue our investigation into these abuses and we're going to call people to come and testify to us. we're not sure that they will. we don't have subpoena power anymore. i just want to make sure everyone understands, these people are not going to get

don, and not just -- i'm sorry. >> that was for you. >> not just a doj. not just a doj official. this is the acting attorney general of the united states whose job is to lead this entire department. you know, it's not only inappropriate but it calls up again all of the questions that have been raised about his, the appearance of you know conflict that he has when it comes to many of the things that are going on in this department and particularly when it comes to the fbi and things relating to the mueller investigation or russia. and i think what's really disconcerting is that his job is to avoid the appearance of any conflict. so even if he has decided not to recuse because of prior comments that he's made, he has an affirmative duty to mitigate any further appearance of you know, lack of impartiality. it seems to me that he has just continuing torg disregard that. that is really to the detriment of the entire department of justice in my opinion. >> michael jeff sessions confirmed that the doj was looking into this back in march of 2018 and it looks like it's still going on. doe

and that is what is happening at doj and fbi in my view.: testimony thank you. >> you're welcome. lou: we're coming right back after this. ♪music ♪yea, you can be the greatest ♪you can be the best ♪you can be the king kong ♪bangin on your chest ♪you can beat the world you can beat the war♪ ♪you can talk to god while bangin on his door♪ ♪you can throw your hands up you can beat the clock♪ ♪you can move a mountain you can break rocks♪ ♪you can be a master don't wait for luck♪ ♪dedicate yourself and you can find yourself♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame ♪yea ♪and the world's gonna know your name, yea♪ ♪and you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪you can be a champion ♪be a champion ♪in the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪be students, be teachers, be politicians, be preachers♪ ♪yea, yea ♪be believers, be leaders, be astronauts, be champions♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame daughter: dad! theycome on, come on!room! ok, dad. one... two... three! (both screaming) dad! you saved me! daughter: dad? older daughter: are you ok? older dad: i'm fine, dear. n

will you entertain those conversations from at doj? >> i've looked through the existing regime, and my instinct is to keep it, maybe even tighten it up a little bit more. i remember when george w. bush's administration was coming, and my advice was, start tight, and then as you realize who has judgment and so forth, you can go back to -- >> they went the other way, and it was a bad day for attorney general gonzalez in the hearing room when that was brought to his attention. what is your understanding right now of who at the department of justice is authorized to have communications with the white house regarding -- >> it depends what it is, but on criminal matters, i would just have the ag and the deputy. >> and what do you think the rule is now in the department? >> i think that's what it is. >> okay. so if the reports are true that, as chief of staff, mr. whitaker was involved in conversations with the white house about bringing criminal investigations against the president's political enemies, that would not be consistent with your

and that is what is happening at doj and fbi in my view.k you. >> you're welcome. lou: we're coming right back after this. great news, liberty mutual customizes- uh uh - i deliver the news around here. ♪ sources say liberty mutual customizes your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. over to you, logo. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ - did you know, the exact same hotel room can have many different prices? it all depends on where you look. - wait, you paid how much? - oh, dear! - well, this is awkward. that's why tripadvisor checks over 200 booking sites (cash register ringing) to find you a great price, and the hotel you want, so you don't end up overpaying for your room. no offense. find the right hotel room for the right price. ♪ hoo! read reviews, check hotel prices, book things to do. tripadvisor. (get-together, especially after ibeing diagnosed last yearto go with my friends to our annual with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. (avo) another tru story with keytruda. (dr. kloecker) i started katy on keytruda and c

we got a doj memorandum. they say they must repay the unemployment insurance. they don't want them to do pro bono work in any official capacity. i guess you shouldn't be out there doing any telethons or anything like that. they are also saying they may not volunteer -- this was a quote, from the doj, their little term sheet, volunteer their services -- may not volunteer their services and continue working on department business during a government shutdown. the reason why i thought they were just ignoring me because they all hate me when i called the pr people at the sec, they weren't getting back to me. they are just not there. i feel better. they don't actually -- they don't hate me. liz: i wouldn't deduce that. [laughter] >> anyway, so i'm actually loved by these people, i think. they are not in their office. that's what's going on now. they are not answering phones. government shutdown, if you don't have money, you know, i read a report, and i don't know if this is true, but if it is true, it is a bizarre turn, that someone told -- recommended that some gov

spokespersons for the doj, t-mobile, huawei, all the client to comment.tudio is thethe lead of the firm china team. take on this increasingly aggressive stance from the u.s. toward huawei? >> this is a long time coming. this is not new. it is getting rolled up in the and china areu.s. coming to a resolution on a trade dispute. this is muddying the waters. first, the cfo's detention and canada and a possible extradition to the u.s.. >> is she under house arrest? >> still in canada and potentially facing extradition. this week, legislation is being introduced that would ban that u.s. companies from selling to -- zte and of the prospect of this criminal investigation against huawei. a even william barr said in hearing that he is skeptical about zte. what are the applications of an indictment? up as predecessors set china initiative to enhance investigations against chinese entities who are potentially influencing american entities or engaged in illegal behavior. huawei is at the center of that latter part. this is consistent with what we are hearing within t

and that is what is happening at doj and fbi in my view.testimony thank you. >> you're welcome. lou: we're coming right back after this. -you mean, like, lunch? -come on. voted "most likely to help people save $668 when they switch." -at this school? -didn't you get caught in the laminating machine? -ha. [ sighs ] -"box, have a great summer. danielle." ooh. danielle, control yourself. i'd like to slow it down here with a special discount for a special girl. danielle, this one's for you. (get-together, especially after ibeing diagnosed last yearto go with my friends to our annual with advanced non-small cell lung cancer. (avo) another tru story with keytruda. (dr. kloecker) i started katy on keytruda and chemotherapy and she's getting results we rarely saw five years ago. (avo) in a clinical trial, significantly more patients lived longer and saw their tumors shrink than on chemotherapy alone. (dr. kloecker) it's changed my approach to treating patients. (avo) keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you ha

cursory review by doj. the ftc really bore down.d after he made that statement, i called some of my sources, not going to say who but they are very plugged in at facebook, at google, they are plugged in in the justice department and they said don't let this go unnoticed. this is a huge statement. it's basically saying for the first time, justice antitrust is going to start bearing down on the big tech companies, particularly facebook and google and they are going to look at their merger activity and basically, they are saying to these guys we don't want you to get bigger anymore. so if google and facebook want to go out there and buy stuff, they will be facing fairly significant regulatory scrutiny from doj antitrust and again, it will be the first time they have done this in awhile, the ftc was generally the front line regulator on this. why are they doing this? well, this is the political climate suggesting that. justice, trump justice department does not agree with everything that nancy pelosi and the democrats agree on, but they

there are people in the national security division over at doj that will go through this report, maybe people at the cia, there may be information -- >> but will the american people be able to see what robert mueller found about trump? >> you know, i think there will be an avenue for this somehow. i really do think so. whether that's through congress or some other avenue, i think given all the attention that this case has gotten, certainly the players that are involved, i think there has to be and i think mueller understands -- >> the transparency. >> the question is -- say the gang of eight, the top eight leaders in the congress, including the heads of the intelligence committees, will they get the mueller report and will that report then be leaked? that's a possibility. will they -- could they say that whatever barr does should he be confirmed is inadequate and doesn't accurately represent all of the nuance or the important details contained in the mueller report? we don't know. could there be a legal fight between the congress and the justice department or the white house about the

some are coming in, and saying "we better give this to the doj."ater, the witnesses they were never contacted. why does jeff sessions, the attorney general of the time, point john huber? and what does he do about it if he doesn't talk to the whistle-blowers? >> kennedy: maybe we don't know who he's talking to. >> jason: but he should talk to these witnesses. >> harris: i was going to say, i will yield by tieback to the congressman. she take it anyway, because you should. you have had conversation with jeff sessions and you know how he does his business, or did his business. according to you -- and i will toss it right back to you -- it was problematic for getting to the bottom of things. >> jason: i'm glad he's the former attorney general, because i thought he was worthless. i can't tell the difference between jeff sessions and eric holder. they acted exactly the same. it was terrible, it's horrific. what's frustrating here is that you have whistle-blowers with legitimate claims who come in, spent time with congress, you then turn it over to the de

he knows that the senior people of the obama doj and fbi have destroyed an institution for two reasons, to protect hillary clinton and to destroy donald trump and to destroy his presidency. this is in fact the greatest political scandal in the history of our country. and i expect bill barr to do what he has always done. he will enforce the law equally but he will also ensure that the doj and the fbi are rooted out of people who have subverted the rule of law. >> let me tell you what else bill has. he thaz a love of the law. and those of us who have been at the justice department feel the same -- lou: i hope we have somebody that has a love for this country and these people. this is just stomach churning to look at the level of corruption. >> it is. >> and those of us who love the law are so upset about what is happening. and bill barr is one of them. and he will do a fine job. lou: all right. victoria, thank you very much. we appreciate it. joe, thank you. >> you bet. lou: up next, president trump postpones nancy pelosi's overseas trip until the government shutdown is over. and the lef

and that fbi and doj, and this guy ran on an american first platform and this was a ludicrous event. and we have to contain these agencies from becoming more powerful. >> you are 1 of 5 democrats in the country that honestly see that he abuse of power and the danger of it. you and the rest of your party -- you probably yelled at parties because you come on the show and you say something different than what the talking point is. >> i explained that my personal experience is that you don't want the president's unless you have a clear basis. now i've been unafraid to see it, ande the more that we learn is, there was no basis to the independent counsel other than the firing of the fbi director who had given testimony before congresse recently before the firing that rod rosenstein wrote a clear memo that he was g unprofessional and deserve to be fired. how crazy is that? >> he was thinking about wearing a wire. john solomon has a report out tonight that says, he was looking at how he could investigate the press. especially -- >> thanks a lot, especially. congressman meadows, this is the q

nobody that is indicative of institutionalism at the top of the doj -- doj has allowed her to be thisontinue to after trump without much of an honest assessment of what has gone on an internally it doj and fbi leading up to this point. an inspector general report that came out was laughable. it was so biased for the fbi and they say there's no bias. we know there is more about -- kennedy: they are obviously protecting themselves. jeff session was there for a week and a half and he turned into a deep stater. it was as though he did shape shifted but not like the good person. >> i'm looking forward to lindsey graham hopefully following through on his promise to look deeper into fisa. kennedy: don't do it just because your guy got spied on them by the way carter page is still rotting in prison, right? >> carter page who speaks to the special counsel without an attorney present. i spend a fair amount of time talking to carter and let me tell you he's a very nice guy but in terms of international man of mystery or a guy who knows how did the cloak and dagger stuff he makes inspect her gadg

it had the go through every layer at the fbi and every possible layer ot doj.ize at that time sessions had already recused. sessions recused in march of '17. rosenstein is in charge. he must have signed off on this. this was really right around the time that rose n stee nstein wa very oddly and stressed. he offered to wear a wire and those weird discussions about the 25th amendment. that happened at the same time as that they are opening the investigation. those pieces begin to fall into play. you cannot explain with enough adjectives how shocking this would be opened this early. i think we have come to some feeling because we have been watching this for several years maybe he was compromised but way back then many the spring of '17, it's very shocking. >> okay. have you surprised by this revelation? >> nothing is surprising anymore. this is unprecedented. the fbi would open an investigation into whether the president of the united states is a russian asset is something we could only imagine in a movie. this is a big deal. it had to be signed off on by the high

and the doj, and the doj itself has said, mandated implicit racial bias training and i hope that's something you'll agree to do. this is the thing i'll conclude on. we live on a planet earth where you cap tell the most about a nation by who they incarcerate. in turkey, they incarcerate journalists. in russia, political opponents. i'm glad we don't do that, even with chants of lock her up. you go into the american criminal prison and you see the most vulnerable people. overstigma myselfed mentally ill people. overstigmatized addicted people. you see a system where as brian stevenson says, it treats you better if you're rich and guilty than poor and innocent. and you see overwhelmingly for drug crimes african-americans and latinos being incarcerated. the importance of your job, and i'll ask you this last question because you haven't met with me yet. would you please meet with me in my office so you and i can have a heart to heart on the urgency, the cancer on the soul of our country's criminal justice system is a disproportionate impact of the system on those vulnerable communities, including

doj prides itself on ensuring that there's no hypothetical of political an amoss in its work so always there's a constant inquiry to make sure we are doing this because there's predcation for an investigation, not because someone is on the outs with someone else, which would, of course, be improper. when you're looking at a counterintelligence case involving the president, all of those concerns are heightened. and for the fbi to decide to take this kind of a step, they must have been looking at signals intelligence and other information that gave them a really credible fear that the country was in peril and that they were in essence obligated to open the investigation, that walking away from it would have been irresponsible. >> so two of president trump's allies came to his defense this morning. they were suggesting that "the new york times" report may be worse news for the nba than for the president. >> it tells me a lot about the people running the fbi, a cave in that crowd. i don't trust him as far as i throw him. what i want to do is make sure how can the fbi do that? what kind of

>> well, i would say as a former federal prosecutor and senior doj official, i of course have been on the inside of more fbi investigations than i could describe on this show, and typically when you see this kind of criticism from the outside, it is the classic sort of armchair quarterbacking that can't be trusted to be credible at all. i think that's what we're seeing and have seen throughout this investigation. i think the real point that people should take from this story is that the real issue would be if the fbi when confronted with the facts that have been reported, if the fbi did not open an investigation with senior level approval which would have been required, that would be a story. the fact that the fbi did apparently have proper predication and as a result did apparently open up this investigation when it did with senior level authority, it is interesting but it should satisfy the american people that the fbi is apolitical, that it views anyone and everyone as not being above the law, whether it is the president of the united states or anyone else, and if the facts are the

if you're inside doj you don't know what's coming your way.ssions is gone, we know the president has been on all-out campaign attacking the leadership, is he going to put a stooge in there? most people look at the performance yesterday from mr. barr, admirable job. they're not getting someone that maybe they could have gotten. i remember when i was inside the fbi after comey was fired, you know, the joke was are they going to put sheriff joe in as fbi director? is this going to be a stooge? we're not getting that with bar. the issue is transparency and what is going to be made public. the american people have been shellshocked by lies from this administration. every single day big and small we're lied to. so through no fault of his own, mr. barr is asking to us look at him and trust him that he will release information and not hold something back. again, right to be skeptical because the administration -- we've run out of the benefit of the doubt so i think what the best thing to do moving forward would be that assurance that, look, we're goin